Updated for Patch 3.20
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
March 08, 2022 -Build created February 19, 2023 -Updated for Patch 3.20 |
Build overview | |||
Tags: [MINION] [PHYSICAL] [LIFE] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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The Necromancer Ascendancy is a great one to use with Minion Skills, and one of them is Summon Holy Relic. Holy Relics are the type of Minions that don't do much on their own, but as you Hit an Enemy with an Attack, they cast a Nova Spell that deals Physical Damage to all nearby enemies and causes Life Regeneration to you and your other Minions. The Attack Skill with the highest Attack Rate and one offering great mobility is Cyclone, link it with Support Gems such as Maim or Life Gain on Hit, it's not supposed to deal any real damage. One of the very few items directly synergizing with Holy Relics is Geofri's Legacy, it increases the Cooldown Recovery Rate of Relics' Nova, and allows you to have one more Relic. The two most important stats to increase your damage in this build are increased Cooldown Recovery Rate for Holy Relics and the Gem Level of Summon Holy Relics Skill Gem.
In terms of defenses it's a standard Minion-type build, but with increased Life Regeneration from the Relics. It's around 4 to 6k of Maximum Life, Armour, capped Block Chance, Maximum Elemental Resistances at over 80%, Offering with Mistress of Sacrifice, rapid Life Regeneration, and some Energy Shield that you can quickly regenerate via Aegis Aurora or Divine Shield. The other Minions you should be using are Animated Guardian, some kind of defensive Golem, and a Spectre granting your Minions a utility Buff. The build is rather cheap, it only requires some Unique Items, and the rare ones have very few stats that would actually benefit your Minions. It's a perfect fit for a newly added Ashes of The Stars Unique Amulet - with a Summon Holy Relic of Divergent Quality your Damage can be increased significantly.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
As is the case with most Minion builds, you won't have to do very much on your own. Your Relics, Spectres, Animated Guardian, and Golems will roam around you performing their tasks. You will have to, however, constantly Hit enemies with your own Attacks, a Cyclone in this case. Use Bone Offering for extra Block Chance, it's great when combined with Aegis Aurora, you should reach 75% Block Chance for Attacks and Spells with Rumi's Concoction. Use Assassin's Mark, it can be triggered via Mark on Hit and Cyclone. It will increase your Damage. For your Minion you should also use Auras such as Pride and Zealory, these can be linked with Generosity Support. The Auras Recommended for your Character are Determination and Tempest Shield (for Spell Block Chance) or Purity of Ice (if using Melding of the Flesh for nearly 90% of all Elemental Resistances). for a Guard Spell use Molten Shell. Desecrate should be also present, it's useful to activate Bone Offering during long boss fights.
Full gameplay video:
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PROS |
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CONS |
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Skeletons will be great for leveling, these Minions deal a lot of damage, making it easy to get through the first acts. You will put most of your Skill Points in Minion Damage and Maximum Life, later to specialize in Block Chance and Mana Reservation Efficiency. The process is very smooth as there are no sudden transitions that would increase your damage significantly. On your gear look for Life, Armour, Resistances, and Minion Damage.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Summon Skeletons setup | |
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Summon Skeletons - Skeletons are great for leveling, these Minions are capable of dealing a lot of damage and don't require a corpse |
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Minion Life Support - Skeletons are more durable |
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Lesser Multiple Projectiles Support - Ranged Skeleton will shoot more Projectiles |
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Minion Damage Support - your Skeletons will deal more damage |
Aura setup | |
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Zealotry - offensive aura for more Spell damage for your Minions |
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Pride - increases the Physical Damage nearby enemies are receiving |
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Generosity Support - your Minions need that buff much more than you do |
Bandits:
Kill all three Bandits for two additional Skill Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
24 Points Skill Tree
Take Lord of The Dead, Cruel Preparation, and Death Attunement
53 Points Skill Tree
seek more Life, Minion Damage, and Mana Reservation Efficiency
Recommended leveling items:
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(20-30)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate +25% to Cold Resistance Minions have (10-15)% increased maximum Life Minions convert 50% of Physical Damage to Cold Damage Minions deal (25-35) to (50-65) additional Cold Damage Minions deal no Non-Cold Damage |
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(60-80)% increased Armour and Evasion Minions have +25% Chance to Block Attack Damage Minions have +25% Chance to Block Spell Damage Minions Recover 10% of their Life when they Block +(10-20)% to all Elemental Resistances |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
Final Skill Tree:
100 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
118 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
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 Yugul: 50% chance to Reflect Hexes; You and your Minions take 50% reduced Reflected Damage
[DPS] Summon Holy Relic setup | |
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Summon Holy Relic - Holy Relics cast a Nova Spell that deals Physical Damage each time you hit an enemy, it has a cooldown of 0.3 seconds that can be later reduced. It's the source of all of your damage. Get one with Divergent Quality. |
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Minion Damage Support - Minions simply deal more Damage. |
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Empower Support - The Gem level of Holy Relics is important, use Empower to increase it. |
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Brutality Support - You don't convert the original Physical Damage of Relics, increase it instead. |
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Predator Support - Allows you to control your Minions, they will focus the enemy you used a "Signal Prey" Spell on, and deal much more damage to it. |
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Increased Critical Damage Support - The Critical Strikes of your Minions deal more Damage. |
[UTILITY] Minions setup | |
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Animate Guardian - You can equip the Guardian with various Unique Items that have a unique effect on other allies, Kingmaker is one of the best ones. |
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Summon Stone Golem - Stone Golem grants you Life Regeneration, you can also use Chaos Golem for Physical Damage mitigation. |
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Raise Spectre - Various Spectres offer various buffs such as Charges on increased damage. |
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Minion Life Support - Linked Minions have increased their Maximum Life. |
[UTILITY] Cyclone setup | |
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Cyclone - Cyclone is used to Hit enemies as it has a very good base Attack Speed. You can also use ![]() |
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Life gain on Hit Support - You will instantly gain Life on Hit with Cyclone. |
[UTILITY] Mark setup | |
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Assassin's Mark - This Mark increases the Critical Strike Damage cursed enemies receive, it's also easier to strike Critically cursed foes. Marked opponents grant you Mana and Life when killed. |
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Mark on Hit Support - Linked Mark is applied whenever you Hit an enemy with an Attack. |
[UTILITY] Auras setup | |
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Determination - Aura grants you increased and additional Armour, which is very useful with Aegis Aurora. |
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Tempest Shield - it gives you an additional Chance to Block Spell Hits. You could replace it with ![]() |
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Enlighten Support - Linked Spells have increased Mana Reservation Efficiency. |
[UTILITY] Bone offering, Desecrate, and Molten Shield setup socketed in the "trigger every 8 seconds" weapon |
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Bone Offering - Bone Offering will affect you thanks to Mistress of Sacrifice. It grants you an increased Chance to Block Spells and Attacks, and Life Regeneration after a successful Block. |
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Desecrate - Creates a pile of corpses you can use to cast Bone Offering. |
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Molten Shell - A simple Guard Spell that can block a portion of incoming damage, it's more effective the more Amour you have. If you don't have enough Mana, use ![]() |
[UTILITY] Minion's Auras setup | |
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Pride - Pride makes nearby enemies take increased Physical Damage, it's even more effective after 4 seconds. |
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Zealotry - Increases Spell Damage, Crit. Chance, and Crit. Multiplier for Spells, which is exactly what you will need. |
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Generosity Support - Linked Auras are more powerful. These won't affect you, but your Minions only. |
[UTILITY] Convocation | |
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Convocation - Your Minions are teleported back to your location and have increased Life Regeneration for a while. |
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You will only need Life, Armour, Resistances, and Minion Damage. It leaves you with a lot of room to play with some Unique Items such as Melding of the Flesh. It will reduce your Resistances but you're able to easily get more from your gear. It's good when combined with Aegis Aurora, for over 80% of Maximum Elemental Resistances. This Shield is heavily recommended as it recovers ES on Block, which you should have a lot of. A Mandatory Unique Item is Geofri's Crest, it's a Helmet specifically designed to make your Holy Relics' cast their Nova more often. Another very popular Item is the Unique Amulet Ashes of the Stars, it enhances and empowers all your Skill Gems, which is really good for a build such as this one, which relies heavily on Gem Level and Gem Quality for its damage. Speaking of Gem Level - your Weapon should increase the Level of all Spell Skill Gems by 1, it's a rare mod but shouldn't be too expensive. You won't need Accuracy Rating with Resolute Technique, which you should allocate.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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+1 to Level of Socketed Gems (60-80)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +(15-20)% to Fire Resistance +(15-20)% to Cold Resistance +(15-20)% to Lightning Resistance +(20-30)% to Chaos Resistance +1 to maximum number of Summoned Holy Relics Summoned Holy Relics have (25-20)% reduced Cooldown Recovery Rate |
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Helmet enchantments: Summon Holy Relic enchantments |
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Min. requirements: +1 to Level of all Spell Skill Gems Minions deal 50% increased Damage (crafted) Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill, with a 8 second Cooldown (crafted) Optional affixes: Minions have 15% increased Attack Speed Minions have 15% increased Cast Speed Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill, with a 4 second Cooldown |
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(300-400)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +10% to all Elemental Resistances +5% to maximum Cold Resistance +6% Chance to Block Replenishes Energy Shield by 2% of Armour when you Block (10-20)% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Sockets cannot be modified +2 to Level of Socketed Gems 100% increased Global Defences You can only Socket Corrupted Gems in this item Item has 6 Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) <Random Keystone> |
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+(25-75) to all Attributes +(30-40)% to Lightning Resistance (20-12)% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills 100% increased Aspect of the Avian Buff Effect Aspect of the Avian also grants Avian's Might and Avian's Flight to nearby Allies +(120-150) to Evasion Rating and Energy Shield |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life +50% to Elemental Resistances 30% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Armour Chaos Resistance Life Regeneration |
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(100-150)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield (30-40)% increased Stun and Block Recovery (50-80)% increased Cooldown Recovery Rate of Travel Skills (30-40)% increased Mana Regeneration Rate while moving Your Movement Speed is 150% of its base value |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life +90% to Elemental Resistances Minions deal 20% increased Damage (crafted) Optional affixes: Armour Chaos Resistance increased Attack Speed |
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(16-20)% increased Melee Damage Adds (2-3) to (22-26) Physical Damage to Attacks (100-150)% increased Armour (20-30)% chance to inflict Corrosion on Hit with Attacks (20-30)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Hitting an Enemy with no Armour (20-30)% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Hitting an Enemy with no Evasion Rating |
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Min. requirements: +90 to Maximum Life +90% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: increased maximum Life Minions have #% increased maximum Life Chaos Resistance |
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+(10-16) to all Attributes (5-10)% increased Experience Gain of Gems (10-20)% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills +1 to Level of all Skill Gems +(20-30)% to Quality of all Skill Gems |
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Recommended Anointments: Ravenous Horde Charisma |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life Minions deal 30% increased Damage +80% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Chaos Resistance Non-Channelling Skills have -(7-6) to Total Mana Cost (crafted) Minions have increased Movement Speed |
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Min. requirements: 7% increased Maximum Life Minions deal 15% increased Damage Elemental Resistances Attributes |
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-(80-70)% to all Elemental Resistances Elemental Resistances are capped by your highest Maximum Elemental Resistance instead -(6-4)% to all maximum Elemental Resistances |
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Commissioned (2000-160000) coins to commemorate (Cadiro-Caspiro-Victario) Passives in radius are Conquered by the Eternal Empire Historic |
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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 |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Renewal 1 Added Passive Skill is Vicious Bite |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is One With the Shield 1 Added Passive Skill is Antifreeze 1 Added Passive Skill is Winter Prowler 1 Added Passive Skill is Second Skin 1 Added Passive Skill is Fettle |
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+1500 to Armour +(8-12)% Chance to Block Attack Damage during Effect +(4-6)% Chance to Block Spell Damage during Effect |
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40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (30-15)% reduced Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Flask effect |
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Other suggested Flasks:
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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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