3.8 New Queens Escape + Baron - super fast physical skeletons + zombies

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gepmah wrote:

Your main problem is - no life on gear. Rings = 0 life, belt (one of the biggest ones) - 0 life
Your tree is missing at least 11 life nodes, and you're focusing too much on life regen, which is useless without huge life pool.

Also, you've got too much ele resists on your tree. I would suggest changing your belt and both rings for better res+life+str, and then switch ele res on the tree for life nodes, such as Scion life wheel, 6% near Devotion, Golem's blood (all 3 nodes), 5% near Bravery, 5% near Heart of the Warrior, 4% near Juggernaut.

I'm currently playing HC Incursion, lvl90, 7500 life (obviously haven't died yet xD) and I still have a lot of room for improvements in my ring and belt slots, with the nearly perfect gear I should have over 8k life right now. You can check my tree for the reference

Thank you very much, I got my sight back! Very useful information)

Immediately follow your advice!

I think I'm going to replace Animate Guardian with Summon Phantasm, It looks like a lot of pain to reacquire the items lost when your guardian dies. Which probably will happen a lot for me.

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Dooder39 wrote:

I think I'm going to replace Animate Guardian with Summon Phantasm, It looks like a lot of pain to reacquire the items lost when your guardian dies. Which probably will happen a lot for me.

I don't know what people are doing to get their Guardians killed. I have been running mine since gem level 16 or earlier. Linked to minion life in The Baron, PoB says it has like 36k life now. Maybe I have not noticed but I have never even seen its life bar dip. I die way, way before that thing would.

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redmalloc wrote:

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Dooder39 wrote:

I think I'm going to replace Animate Guardian with Summon Phantasm, It looks like a lot of pain to reacquire the items lost when your guardian dies. Which probably will happen a lot for me.

I don't know what people are doing to get their Guardians killed. I have been running mine since gem level 16 or earlier. Linked to minion life in The Baron, PoB says it has like 36k life now. Maybe I have not noticed but I have never even seen its life bar dip. I die way, way before that thing would.

Mine died to a corrupted t15 map with 400% crit damage and lightning damage / an extra tough pack that spammed lightning. Other than that I've never had it dip in health at all, t15 corrupted bosses dont even dent it. I don't think id worry about it if I was anyone else, the items are 1 alc each so even if it dies its just a minor inconvenience.

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By the way, if I get more life on gear and in the skill tree, will running double five links be enough to do all content? I know 6 link is important but I'm just honestly so far from that at the moment. I've never had one before and I don't mind so as long as I can do all the bosses. Is this a dream with five link?

Do I need to stop being a pussy and grind for the 6L to do all content?

Double 5 links is definitely enough to do all content..... If you swap melee splash for a damage multiplier for bosses.
When I got a six link, 90% of the time I ran melee splash, which means I was bossing with the equivalent of a 5-link damage.

On getting a 6 - link: Belly 6 link is just expensive because it is a unique item. A 6 link chest with life roll costs 10C right now. Buy one of these, exchange it for the belly of the beast, and put in the 6 link setup you want. This will show you how a 6 link 'feels' and you won't give up too much survivability, if any.

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grimlock9999 wrote:

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By the way, if I get more life on gear and in the skill tree, will running double five links be enough to do all content? I know 6 link is important but I'm just honestly so far from that at the moment. I've never had one before and I don't mind so as long as I can do all the bosses. Is this a dream with five link?

Do I need to stop being a pussy and grind for the 6L to do all content?

Double 5 links is definitely enough to do all content..... If you swap melee splash for a damage multiplier for bosses.
When I got a six link, 90% of the time I ran melee splash, which means I was bossing with the equivalent of a 5-link damage.

On getting a 6 - link: Belly 6 link is just expensive because it is a unique item. A 6 link chest with life roll costs 10C right now. Buy one of these, exchange it for the belly of the beast, and put in the 6 link setup you want. This will show you how a 6 link 'feels' and you won't give up too much survivability, if any.

1.Hey Grim, what is the optimal colors for a 6 link for max DPS. Is it 3 red and 3 blue? or 4 blue and 2 red?

2. is armor important to us or not? can I just get a 6 link with evasion or little armor?

3. When you say melee multiplier, do you mean things like multistrike and ruthless? Which one is best? I actually don't use melee splash at the moment. I use maim, melee physical damage,and brutality. should I change that up? Melee splash is better than maim? Could you actually do a write up about each gem and how it synergies with our minions and why they are used in this build? Because even now I don't have a strong grasp on what is most important. I just use the gems that you posted without much though. I'm not sure of their hierarchy.

It's less that one skill is better than the other, and more that different skills have different objectives. Maim, for example, will apply a debuff that slows the target and increase their incoming damage. In addition, it has a multiplier for physical damage.

Melee splash on the other hand, takes the damage value of the initial hit, and spreads it within an area of effect. As such, when a pack of trash is grouped up, you damage the group as a whole instead of watching the skeletons killing the group one by one. This will speed up your mapping, and thereby allow you to fit in more maps per session.


As such - melee splash for getting through the maps to the boss. Maim or Ruthless for the bosses themselves.


Since I've never used either Maim or Ruthless before, I can't comment which is better than the other. Presumably, the more attack speed you're able to apply to your skeletons, the more attractive Ruthless becomes.

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Dragei wrote:

It's less that one skill is better than the other, and more that different skills have different objectives. Maim, for example, will apply a debuff that slows the target and increase their incoming damage. In addition, it has a multiplier for physical damage.

Melee splash on the other hand, takes the damage value of the initial hit, and spreads it within an area of effect. As such, when a pack of trash is grouped up, you damage the group as a whole instead of watching the skeletons killing the group one by one. This will speed up your mapping, and thereby allow you to fit in more maps per session.


As such - melee splash for getting through the maps to the boss. Maim or Ruthless for the bosses themselves.


Since I've never used either Maim or Ruthless before, I can't comment which is better than the other. Presumably, the more attack speed you're able to apply to your skeletons, the more attractive Ruthless becomes.

yeah I understand that but I know that some gems take priority. For example, it seems like minion damage and brutality are MUST have gems.

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1.Hey Grim, what is the optimal colors for a 6 link for max DPS. Is it 3 red and 3 blue? or 4 blue and 2 red?

Best colours for DPS skeletons is 4 red, 2 blue

Vaal Summon Skeleton > Brutality > Minion Damage > Melee Physical Damage > Maim > Ruthless > Multistrike

Best colours for DPS zombies is 4 blue, 2 red

Zombies > Minion Life > Brutality > Minion Damage > Melee Physical Damage > Concentrated effect

But I will stress again, don't get too hung up on this. The difference between ruthless, multistrike, faster attacks, etc. is not much either way, so best to just adapt the gems to fit the colours you roll.

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2. is armor important to us or not? can I just get a 6 link with evasion or little armor?

Yes, we love armour lots and evasion too. Helps keep us alive! But since we get a decent amount from other gear and passive nodes, high or low armour and evasion on your 6 link chest will neither help nor hinder you too much. If you find it, great, if not, don't stress.

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3. When you say melee multiplier, do you mean things like multistrike and ruthless? Which one is best? I actually don't use melee splash at the moment. I use maim, melee physical damage,and brutality. should I change that up? Melee splash is better than maim? Could you actually do a write up about each gem and how it synergies with our minions and why they are used in this build? Because even now I don't have a strong grasp on what is most important. I just use the gems that you posted without much though. I'm not sure of their hierarchy.

Dragei gave a great explanation of most of this, the only thing I'll add is that when you look at the gem section in the guide, this sign > is meant to indicate "is greater than in my humble opinion". And should answer all your hierarchy/priority queries.

Thanks grim! I am all set. By the way. I just finished Act 10 for the FIRST time. All with your build. Thanks man! I'm loving the build as it's so fun to gear up and improve via ascendancy and skill tree.

I actually only died to traps when doing lab trials. no monster ever killed me. I don't even remember the Act bosses because I destroyed them without even looking at them. Complete domination. Don't laugh by I actually never even capped my resists (I'm still not capped on cold or lightning). And I STILL had zero problems.

Right now I am at about 80c and I am saving up for Seven Step League. is that worth upgrading to? Or how about astramentis? should I get that instead or a different necklace with just life and resists? not sure what I should blow my money on. hehe.