Updated for Patch 3.17
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes |
May 21, 2021 -Build created February 05, 2022 -Updated for patch 3.17 |
Build overview | |||
Tags: [MINION] [ELEMENTAL] [LIFE] [STARTER] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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Summon Raging Spirits is often an overlooked Skill Gem, Necromancers usually go for Zombies or Skeletons as their main source of damage, for they offer better protection and don't die so easily. Raging Spirit Necromancer plays more like a caster than a summoner, your minions are short-lived floating skulls that enemies can pass through, however, there are some key advantages that make this build stand out. Raging Spirits have more Maximum Life than Skeletons and do not require corpses as Zombies do, so it's a great balance between damage and reliability. There are a few Unique Items you could use and some other mechanics making this particular option a valid choice.
Take Minion Instability Keystone - your Raging Spirits will explode dealing a third of their maximum Life as Fire Damage to surrounding enemies when they reach low life - which is half of their health bar. Relying on your opponents to deal damage to them is a horrible idea for a build, so other key components are Infernal Legion Support Gem - your Minions Will deal Fire Damage over time to surrounding enemies while draining their own life - similar to Righteous Fire, and you have to wear Tavukai Unique Amulet, it makes your Raging Spirits significantly more powerful, and the only downside - them losing their Health at a rate of 20% of Maximum Life per second in form of Chaos Damage - is actually something very useful. Another Unique that's great with this build is a Replica Shiegebreaker - your minions will deal additional damage based on their Maximum Life on death.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
As it is with Necromancers - you're gonna use more than one type of Minion, Zombies will offer you protection by distracting enemies from you and acting as bodyguards. Stone Golem gives you Life Regeneration and Taunts enemies, you can even use specters for they offer a huge variety of great utility buffs. It's a common practice to pick one with Proximity Shield and stay close to them for better protection against projectiles. You'll be Summoning Raging spirits, they'll rapidly approach enemies, hit them a few times, and then explode. The explosion Hit is the main source of damage - you'll heavily invest in their Maximum Life and damage, so the more damage enemies will deal - the more damage they will receive.
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PROS |
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CONS |
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Pick the Summon Ragins Spirit Skill Gem at the start of the first act and use it throughout the rest of the game. You can Pick Minion Instability Keystone as soon as you're able to and then focus on your own Maximum Life, your damage will be good enough with just a few nodes increasing your Minion's life and damage and from the Notables in after your first ascension.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Summon Raging Spirit setup | |
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Summon Raging Spirit - besides being your main DPS skill in this build, it's also great for leveling |
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Minion Life Support - gives your minion more life, which makes it deal more damage |
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Infernal Legion Support - having your minion deal more damage and explode faster is necessary |
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Minion Damage Support - your Raging Spirits will deal more damage |
Storm Brand setup | |
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Storm Brand - use Storm Brand instead of directly casting the Curse, it will help you activate Elemental Equilibrium |
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Hextouch - link it with Flammability and Storm Brand |
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Flammability - it will lower enemies fire resistance, the type of damage your Ragins Spirits are mostly dealing |
Aura setup | |
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Vitality - defensive aura for health regeneration |
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Flesh and Stone - use sand stance for defense |
Bandits:
KIll all three Bandits for two additional Skill Points
Leveling Skill Trees:
32 Points Skill Tree
First, go for Minion Instability, Indomitable Army, Enduring Bond, and get yourself some Maximum Life
66 Points Skill Tree
Allocate Glancing Blows and take Mystic Bulwark, get more maximum Life, and go for the outer Jewels Socket so that you can start allocating Cluster Jewels
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 have (10-15)% increased Movement Speed Minions deal (5-9) to (11-15) additional Cold Damage (15-10)% reduced Mana Cost of Minion Skills |
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Adds 1 to 4 Physical Damage to Attacks +(10-30) to all Attributes (10-30)% increased Damage (10-30)% increased Rarity of Items found +(10-30)% to all Elemental Resistances |
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(60-80)% increased Armour and Evasion +(50-70) to maximum Life +(50-70) to maximum Mana +(10-20)% to all Elemental Resistances Minions have +10% Chance to Block Attack Damage Minions have +(300-350) to Armour Minions Regenerate 2% of Life per second |
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(22-26)% increased Spell Damage +(10-20) to Intelligence Minions have (40-50)% increased Movement Speed Minions deal (50-70)% increased Damage +6 to maximum number of Raging Spirits +3 to maximum number of Summoned Phantasms Reserves 30% of Life Cannot be used with Chaos Inoculation |
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+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
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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:
87 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels)
123 Points Path of Building (PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Lunaris: 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%; 1% increased Movement Speed for each
nearby Enemy, up to 8%
Minor God: Soul of Garukhan: 60% reduced Effect of Shock on you; Cannot be Blinded, You cannot be Maimed
[DPS] Summon Raging Spirits setup (Socketed in Rare Helmet) |
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Summon Raging Spirit - with two modifiers that grant additional Gem links from your Helmet, you can put your Main DPS Skill Gem in there. If you don't have such a Helmet, put it in your six-linked Body Armour. |
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Elemental Focus Support - You can no longer Ignite, but all your damage comes from Hits so it's not a huge loss |
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Fire Penetration Support - use it to deal more Fire Damage by penetrating Fire Resistance |
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Unleash Support - use it to spawn more minions in a rapid succession |
Support Gems granted by your Rare Helmet: | |
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Minion Life Support - increases the Life of your Minions and hence the explosion Damage from Minion Instability, but you can also replace it with another Affix, ![]() |
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Minion Damage Support - one of the most important Support Gems in this setup |
[DPS] Raise Zombie setup | |
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Raise Zombie - they offer a huge damage boost during Boss fights by applying a number of debuffs |
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Minion Life Support - Increases damage from Minion Instability and keeps them alive for longer |
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Feeding Frenzy Support - makes your minions aggressive, which is good |
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Elemental Army Support - zombies will apply exposure on hit, it also increases their defense against Elemental Damage |
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Combustion Support - increases Minion's Fire Damage and Lowers Fire Resistance of your opponents |
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Meat Shield Support - Zombies are defensive and Taunt enemies on Hit increasing your survivability |
[UTILITY] Storm Brand setup | |
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Storm Brand - used to apply curses on enemies and trigger Elemental Equilibrium |
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Hextouch Support - Brand will constantly apply Flammability Curse |
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Flammability - offensive Curse, increases the Fire Damage dealt to affected enemies |
[MOBILITY] Flame Dash setup | |
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Flame Dash - a mobility spell that allows you to quickly get out of sticky situations |
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Arcane Surge Support - increases your damage upon spending a certain amount of mana, keep it at a low enough level so that a single Flame Dash can activate it. Keep this Gem at level 7 so that you gain the buff which each cast |
[UTILITY] Summon Stone Golem | |
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Summon Stone Golem - Stone Golem is a preferred Golem for this build which boosts your survivability by increasing your Life Regeneration |
[UTILITY] Bone Offering/Desecrate setup (Socketed in Trigger Wand) |
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Bone Offering - your minions become more defensive, with an increased chance to Block, and Life Recovery on Block. It will also affect you after you allocate Misstress of Sacrifice. All Gems in this setup have to be triggered by your Crafted Wand |
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Desecrate - creates Corpses for your Bone Offering and other bonuses from the Necromancer Class |
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Convocation - recalls your Minions back to you, it's optional |
[UTILITY] Auras setup | |
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Summon Skitterbots - Chill and Schock effect they provide is great for offense and defense |
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Vitality - regenerates Life for you and your allies |
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Determination - use to gain more Armour which is one of the best defensive layers |
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Enlighten Support - Linked Spells reserve less Mana |
[UTILITY] Dread Banner | |
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Defiance Banner - use it for more Armour, Evasion Rating, and to reduce Critical Strike Chance of nearby enemies |
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Gather as much Life as you can, this is your priority. All the necessary gear you should get is cheap, the usual Life and Resistances are enough. Your most important pieces of equipment are Helmet and Wand, prepare to spend most of your budget on those. After you're done with that, get the recommended Cluster Jewels, they shouldn't be expensive. You won't need Watcher's Eye - the mods for them are not worth your investment initially. The final touch is Elegant Hubris. You can use Deafening Essence of Fear on your Helmet, Body Armour, Boots, Gloves, Belt, and Shield for additional Minion Life.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Min. requirements: +# to Level of Socketed Minion Gems Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Minion Life Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Minion Damage 50 Maximum Life Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances Socketed Gems are Supported by Level # Concentrated Effect |
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Helmet enchantments: Summon Raging Spirit has 18% chance to summon an extra Minion 150% increased Effect of the Buff granted by your Stone Golems |
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Min. requirements: +1 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems Minions have 35% increased maximum Life Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Spell Skill Gems Minions have 15% increased Attack Speed Minions have 15% increased Cast Speed Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Use a Skill, with a 8 second Cooldown (crafted) |
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Min. requirements: +120 to maximum Life +100% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Chance to Block #% increased maximum Life increased Effect of your Curses additional Physical Damage Reduction |
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Min. requirements: +80 to Maximum Life #% increased effect of Offerings Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances You can apply additional Curse #% increased maximum Life |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life +70% to Elemental Resistances +25% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: % chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill Cannot be Frozen % chance to avoid Projectiles |
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Min. requirements: +80 to Maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Minions deal #% increased Damage Minions have #% increased maximum Life |
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+(25-35) to Strength (6-10)% increased maximum Energy Shield (6-10)% increased maximum Life +(15-25)% to Fire Resistance Your Minions spread Burning Ground on Death, dealing 20% of their maximum Life as Fire Damage per second Minions have 5% chance to Maim Enemies on Hit with Attacks |
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Regenerate (2-4) Life per second +(30-40) to Intelligence Minions have +(-17-17)% to Chaos Resistance Summon Raging Spirit has (20-30)% increased Duration Summoned Raging Spirits deal (60-80)% increased Damage Summoned Raging Spirits have (80-100)% increased maximum Life Summoned Raging Spirits take 20% of their Maximum Life per second as Chaos Damage |
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Recommended Anointments: Righteous Army Ravenous Horde |
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Min. requirements: +70 to Maximum Life +50% to Total Elemental Resistances Curse Enemies with Flammability on Hit Optional affixes: Minions deal #% increased Damage Minions have #% increased Movement Speed (can be crafted) |
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Min. requirements: 7% increased Maximum Life Minions Have 10% Increased Maximum Life Optional affixes: Elemental Resistances Minion's Attack and Cast Speed |
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Min. requirements: +30 to Maximum Life Minions Have 10% Increased Maximum Life Minions deal #% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently Optional affixes: 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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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Call to the Slaughter 1 Added Passive Skill is Raze and Pillage |
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Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Hulking Corpses |
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+1500 to Armour +(8-12)% Chance to Block Attack Damage during Flask effect +(4-6)% Chance to Block Spell Damage 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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