Blink & Mirror of Bombarding and Prismatic Clones
Necromancer Build

Updated for Patch 3.27

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The Mirror Arrow is a Bow Skill that simply creates your Clone in a targeted location, while the Blink Arrow also teleports you to it, and leaves the Clone behind. The Transfigured Blink and Mirror Arrow greatly empower the Clones, which creates a very powerful Minion Build. There are two versions: Bombarding Clones that shoot arrows into the sky, and Prismatic Clones that use an empowered version of Elemental Hit. Each type has a limit of 3 Clones, but you can mix different types for a total of 6 powerful Minions. 

It is recommended to have your Mirror Arrow create Bombarding Clones, but you might prefer to have it on the Blink Arrow instead. You can freely alternate between them by selling the Gem with Orb of Alternation to any vendor. 

The important key feature is that Clones use your own Bow and Quiver, which allows many different approaches to scale the Damage. There are a lot of combinations possible, but the Crit Lightning variant is the best one for both low and high budgets. The limiting factor here is that the Elemental Hit used by Prismatic Clones can choose a Fire, Cold, or Lightning type at random, and can deal Damage only of that one Element. It Converts all Physical Damage into that type, but any Added Damage from other sources will be discarded. On the other hand, the Bombarding Clone deals overall less Damage but allows for all Damage types. In this variant, you will use those two Skills in the same Six-link Setup.

In Patch 3.27, your Clones are weaker, but ignore Accuracy Rating completely. You can now invest fully in Animate Guardian and special Spectres without losing your money in case they die. You should invest a bit into Minion's survivability to keep them alive, but occasional accidents won't set you back. Not only does it help regain or even surpass the lost Damage, but you will also gain a lot of personal defensive powers, such as Fortify or Endurance Charges. 

The Necromancer Ascendency provides a mix of generic Damage and Defense. Your Minions will deal More Damage and Attack faster, and having a Corpse nearby will improve their Damage further, as well as weaken your Enemies. Your Minions will also Leech Life for you, which provides a very strong source of Recovery. 

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

1. Gameplay

Use Bombaring Clones to clear hordes of Enemies, and summon Prismatic Clones to deal with powerful foes. The Curse and Offering should be automated with Arcanist Brand. The Frostblink allows you to quickly dodge incoming threats and apply a powerful Exposure effect. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

The Bombarding and Prismatic Clones are very powerful right from the start, but if you don't have access to the Transfigured Gems, you should use the usual Summon Raging Spirits. It is one of the best leveling Skills in the game, often used by other Builds to complete the campaign. Remember to upgrade your Bow and Quiver every few levels, as unlike other Minions, this Build scales with your Weapon. You can check out our  Leveling Guide using Minions for more tips.  

Bandits:

Kill all three bandits to get one additional Passive Skill Point or kill Alira to help with Gearing. 

Leveling Skill Trees:
38 Points Passive Tree
Pick up all nearby Minion Damage Notables, but do not forget about raising maximum Life and Mana Regeneration. 

75 Points Passive Tree
The Cooldown Recovery Rate from Bow Mastery is a massive Quality of Life upgrade, but it costs a lot of Points to reach it. You can first allocate Minion and Life Notables to ensure smooth DPS.  

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

112 Points Final Passive Tree (doesn't include Cluster or Unique Jewels)
121 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Mindless Aggression 
2. Bone Barrier
3. Commander of Darkness
4. Plaguebringer

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of the Brine King: You cannot be Stunned if you've been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds

Minor God: Soul of Shakari: You cannot be Poisoned while there are at least 3 Poisons on you; 50% less Duration of Poisons on You

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Mirror and Blink Arrow Setup
	Mirror Arrow of Bombarding Clones - creates a Clone in the targeted location. The Clone uses an Area Attack based on the Rain of Arrows Skill.
	Blink Arrow of Prismatic Clones - teleports you to the location and leaves a Clone behind. The Prismatic Clone shoots a single Elemental Hit Arrow at nearby Enemies.
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support
	Volatility Support
	Minion Damage Support
	Added Lightning Damage Support

[UTILITY] Aura Setup
	Grace - a defensive Aura that grants you a bonus to your Evasion Rating.
	Wrath - an offensive Aura that grants your Minions tons of Added Lightning Damage for their Attacks. This Aura can also be granted by the Spirit of Fortune Spirit, allowing you to pick Haste.
	Arctic Armour - makes you immune to Freeze and lowers Physical Damage taken while stationary, such as when you are creating your Clones.
	Enlighten Support

[UTILITY] Aura Setup
	Clarity - you will need sufficient Mana Regeneration for comfortable gameplay. Adjust the Gem Levels for your needs.
	Vaal Haste - a Vaal Skill that grants tons of Attack Speed for your Minions upon use. With Spectres, you will be able to use the regular version too.

[UTILITY] Arcanist Brand Setup
	Arcanist Brand - you will have a lot of utility Skills, but you can automate them with just one button press thanks to this Brand.
	Desecrate - spawns Corpses that can be used for Offerings, and activate the Plaguebringer Notable.
	Spirit Offering - a short Buff that consumes Corpses in order to activate. It grants your Minions tons of Critical Strike Chance and Damage.
	Conductivity - this Curse massively reduces the Lightning Resistance of your Enemies.
	Assassin's Mark - you will need to allocate the Whispers of Doom Notable to use this Skill. It empowers the Critical Strikes of your Minions and grants them a chance to generate Power Charges.

[UTILITY] Optional Utility Minions Setup
	Raise Spectre -  summons fallen Enemy as your Minion, which can grant you various Buffs. Use special Perfect Spirit of Fortune, Warlord, and Forest Tiger or Forest Warrior Corpses for a mix of offense and defense.
	Animate Guardian -  this Minion wears the Items of your choosing, consuming them in the process. It can be used to grant many useful bonuses to your Minions, such as Culling Strike and Fortify. You won't lose your Items upon the Minion's death now.
	Meat Shield Support
	Minion Life Support

[UTILITY] Guard Setup
	Immortal Call - lowers the incoming Damage. You can also use the Steelskin for an absorption shield instead.
	Cast when Damage Taken Support - automatically Triggers the Guard Skill if you have enough Damage. Adjust the Gem Levels to your preferences.

[UTILITY] Movement Setup
	Frostblink - an instant Teleport that leaves Chilling Ground in both locations. It also triggers the Elemental Equilibrium, inflicting Lightning Exposure.

6. Gear Setup

Due to the Prismatic Clone limitation, you can use only Lightning or Physical Damage types for your Minions. You will also need two Combat Focus Jewels to disable Fire and Cold variants. The Ancient Skull makes using the Spectres or Animate Guardian very hard, but the amount of Damage it grants can easily justify it. Your Weapons are quite typical for a Bow Attack Archetype, while the rest of your Gear are usual Summoner pieces. You will want to get bonuses for Minion's Damage and Attack Speed on your Jewels, Rings, and Gloves. Your main defense is high maximum Life, Evasion Rating, and Spell Suppression. 
You can use the Animate Guardian to get various benefits. You can find more useful Setups in our Animate Guardian Setup Guide.

(Helmet) Ancient Skull - the Whisper Buff grants your Minions 50% increased Damage and Attack Speed, but they take powerful Chaos DoT Damage in return. This Helmet also grants them a lot of Critical Strike Chance, and you don't need to generate Charges to activate it.

Minions deal (15-20)% increased Damage (150-200)% increased Armour and Energy Shield Minions have (40-20)% reduced maximum Life Minions have (15-25)% increased Movement Speed Minions have 50% increased Critical Strike Chance per Maximum Power Charge you have Minions can hear the whispers for 5 seconds after they deal a Critical Strike

(Weapon) Rare Bow -  look for a Rare Bow with the highest Critical Strike Chance and Lightning DPS you can get. Later on, you can Craft it using Essence of Fear to get the Minion Damage modifier on top of that, but it can be quite expensive.

Min. requirements: 500+ Lightning DPS 8% Critical Strike Chance Optional affixes: Minions deal #% increased Damage Attacks with this Weapon Penetrate #% Elemental Resistances

(Off-hand) Rare Quiver - here look for Attack Speed, flat Lightning Damage for Attack, and Critical Strikes. It is quite a rare source of Critical Strike Multiplier for your Minions.

Optional affixes: #% increased Global Critical Strike Chance #% increased Damage with Bow Skills % to Critical Strike Multiplier with Bows #% increased Attack Speed Adds # Lightning Damage to Attacks

(Body Armour) Doppelgänger Guise - the best defensive Armour for this Build, it provides a large amount of Damage Reduction and Life Regeneration, while still allowing you to invest in Evasion or Energy Shield.

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

(Body Armour) Fleshcrafter - at first you can use this Armour to allow your Minions to ignore Elemental Resistances. It doesn't grant you any Defense, but you can use the Enfeeble Curse to weaken Enemies instead.

(100-150)% increased Energy Shield Minions Convert 2% of their Maximum Life to Maximum Energy Shield per 1% Chaos Resistance they have Chaos Damage taken does not bypass Minions' Energy Shield Minions have (50-100)% faster start of Energy Shield Recharge While Minions have Energy Shield, their Hits Ignore Monster Elemental Resistances

(Belt) Rare Belt - on your Belt seek tons of Elemental Resistances and maximum Life. The Hunter Influence can be used to raise your Life even more. Always use the Stygian Vise Belt to get additional Socket.

Min. requirements: +100 to maximum Life 100% total Elemental and Chaos Resistance Optional affixes: #% increased maximum Life (Hunter Influence)

(Belt) Rare Abyss Jewels - the Abyss Jewel can Add Lightning Damage for your Minions, and increase their Damage. Make sure to get at least one modifier that grants your Minions a chance to inflict Blind and Taunt on Hit.

Min. requirements: +30 maximum Life Optional affixes: Minions deal # additional Lightning/Physical Damage Minions have #% chance to Taunt on Hit with Attacks Minions have #% chance to Blind on Hit with Attacks Minions deal #% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - look for high maximum Life, Spell Suppression, and Resistance or Dexterity. You can Craft the Minion Damage modifiers using crafting Bench and Eldritch Influence.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +70% to Elemental Resistances +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage Optional affixes: Minions deal #% increased Damage +# to Dexterity

(Boots) Rare Boots - The Boots are purely defensive pieces. Look for the same modifiers as your Gloves, but replace Minion modifiers with Movement Speed.

Min. requirements: +100 to Maximum Life +40% to Elemental Resistances +30% increased Movement Speed +10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage Optional affixes: +# to Dexterity % increased Cooldown Recovery Rate of Travel Skills

(Amulet) Perquil's Toe - with this Amulet your Minion's Hits will be Lucky, which rolls their Attack Damage twice. It is very valuable for the Lightning type, famous for its high range of Damage.

(12-20)% increased Rarity of Items found +(40-50) to Dexterity (5-8)% increased Movement Speed Lightning Damage of Enemies Hitting you is Lucky Nearby Allies' Damage with Hits is Lucky

(Amulet) The Jinxed Juju - a very good Amulet that empowers your Auras and redirects a portion of your incoming Damage to your Spectres instead.

+(16-24) to Strength and Dexterity +(30-40) to Intelligence +(23-31)% to Chaos Resistance (10-15)% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills 10% of Damage from Hits is taken from your Raised Spectres' Life before you

(Ring) Rare Ring - the Bone Rings can roll special Minion modifiers that grant them Damage and Attack Speed. You will also need plenty of maximum Life, Resistance, or Attributes here.

Min. requirements: +60% to Elemental Resistances +70 to Maximum Life Minions deal 35% increased Damage Optional affixes: Attributes #% increased Mana Regeneration Rate Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed

(Jewel) Medium Cluster Jewels - your Clones do not need any defense, but your Spectres and Animate Guardian will need them to make their Buffs reliable.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Dread March 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewels - the Notables on Cluster Jewels are not great, you should opt for increased Effect of small Notables with additional bonuses on them.

Recommended affixes: Added Small Passive Skills also grant: Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed Added Small Passive Skills have #% increased Effect Added Small Passive Skills also grant: +#% to all Elemental Resistances Added Small Passive Skills also grant: +# to Dexterity Added Small Passive Skills also grant: +# to maximum Life

(Jewel) Grand Spectrum - it is a great boost for your Minion's Critical Damage. Although the best results are reached upon reaching the limit of 3 Jewels, equipping just 2 of them can be noticeable.

Minions have +10% to Critical Strike Multiplier per Grand Spectrum

(Jewel) Combat Focus - a very important set of Jewels, it disables Fire and Cold Hits on your Prismatic Clone, allowing you to fully focus on the Lighting element.

(10-15)% increased Elemental Damage With 40 total Intelligence/Strength in Radius, Prismatic Skills cannot choose Fire/Cold With 40 total Intelligence/Strength in Radius, Prismatic Skills deal 50% less Fire/Cold Damage

(Jewel) Fortress Covenant - this Jewel simply increases the Damage of your Minions by a great amount and grants them a Chance to Block incoming Damage. The downside does not apply if you Socket it in the Cluster Jewel.

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) The Light of Meaning - with this Jewel, you can get a lot of Chaos Resistance. It is not very important to have at first, so don't rush it if you don't have the budget for it.

Passive Skills in Radius also grant +4% to Chaos Resistance

(Flask) The Sorrow of the Divine - this Flask is your only source of recovering Energy Shield in combat other than avoiding taking Damage, granting you an extra 500-1000 "Life" during fights.

(25-50)% increased Duration Zealot's Oath during Effect Life Recovery from Flasks also applies to Energy Shield during Effect

Suggested Flasks: Life Flask with Bleeding Removal Jade Flask with an increased Evasion Rating modifier Quartz Flask with an increased Movement Speed modifier Quicksilver Flask with Curse Effect Reduction

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

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