I've also never used animate guardian, which seems a bit of a PITA since I have to always find gear to animate and the guardian isn't then when I log back in the next day. Often my damage (90K per zombie in POB) is good enough in maps, that I don't bother with the guardian.
Guardian's keep all gear you use on them. They DO despawn on logout, or gem swaps but they only lose the gear if they die. To get back your guardian with the same gear he had last, simply use the skill in your hideout, or on empty air.
Typically it's easier to summon all your zombies in your hideout when you login. You can use desecrate to make corpses to do so.
I've also never used animate guardian, which seems a bit of a PITA since I have to always find gear to animate and the guardian isn't then when I log back in the next day. Often my damage (90K per zombie in POB) is good enough in maps, that I don't bother with the guardian.
Guardian's keep all gear you use on them. They DO despawn on logout, or gem swaps but they only lose the gear if they die. To get back your guardian with the same gear he had last, simply use the skill in your hideout, or on empty air.
Typically it's easier to summon all your zombies in your hideout when you login. You can use desecrate to make corpses to do so.
Kingmaker alone is a pretty big qol. Free culling and fortify. Not to mention victarios flight for some extra ms and curse on hit gloves also for free cursing.
I've also never used animate guardian, which seems a bit of a PITA since I have to always find gear to animate and the guardian isn't then when I log back in the next day. Often my damage (90K per zombie in POB) is good enough in maps, that I don't bother with the guardian.
Guardian's keep all gear you use on them. They DO despawn on logout, or gem swaps but they only lose the gear if they die. To get back your guardian with the same gear he had last, simply use the skill in your hideout, or on empty air.
Typically it's easier to summon all your zombies in your hideout when you login. You can use desecrate to make corpses to do so.
I've also never used animate guardian, which seems a bit of a PITA since I have to always find gear to animate and the guardian isn't then when I log back in the next day. Often my damage (90K per zombie in POB) is good enough in maps, that I don't bother with the guardian.
Guardian's keep all gear you use on them. They DO despawn on logout, or gem swaps but they only lose the gear if they die. To get back your guardian with the same gear he had last, simply use the skill in your hideout, or on empty air.
Typically it's easier to summon all your zombies in your hideout when you login. You can use desecrate to make corpses to do so.
Kingmaker alone is a pretty big qol. Free culling and fortify. Not to mention victarios flight for some extra ms and curse on hit gloves also for free cursing.
It's like 150+c, so will be something to try in the future. At least know I know that the guardian doesn't lose gear at logout, so I don't mind investing when I get some currency.
So I think I finally have my endgame weapon sorted. It's certainly not as cut and dried as before.
I was able to grab these two bases...
After doing some work in POB, I think I'm going to be using the Staff. It has higher overall DPS, provides a useful block implict, and gives +2 to my animate guardian, spectres and all other spells in the build. I will lose out on having built in fortify on the zombies, but I'll lean on Kingmaker for that.
I'll probably go ahead and craft out both items late game, so I can have an option if the Zombies are too squishy, or I want to despawn my guardian.
If I somehow become super rich, and the build is complete, I'll most likely toss one or two faceted fossils at a two-handed sword and hope for a super lucky hit.
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Overall, crafting the endgame weapon is not nearly as deterministic as it used to be. The lvl 1 fortify/+1 gems two hander is the "easiest" option... But getting the crafting base requires Chaos spam to hit the two required prefixes.
Weapon crafting steps:
1. Purchase a ilvl 68 (or above) elder two handed melee weapon (Axe, Sword or Mace) Any of them will do, but as Qlida pointed out, witches look awesome with two-handed swords. You may want to stick as close to ilvl 68 as you can to limit the mod pool.
2. I would use a perfect fossil on the base at this point to get your weapon quality up to 28 or above, this will make sockets and links easier later
3. Chaos spam until you get the following --- This is the step that is 100% luck based and annoying.
-Prefix: +1 to Socketed support gems
-Prefix: Socketed gems are supported by lvl 1 fortify.
Once you hit those two together, you'll need to do a couple of things based on the other mods on the item.
If the item has a free suffix and free prefix, move to step 4.
If the item doesn't have both a free suffix, and a free prefix, use annul orbs to make that happen. You may want to pray that they don't kill one of your 2 important mods. If they do, go back to chaos spam.
4. If you have additional suffixes on the item that you don't want, Craft Prefixes cannot be changed on the item as a suffix. (cost 2 EX) and scour the item. This will leave you with a rare item with the two important prefixes.
5. Now is a good time to craft a quality mod on the item and 6 link it. Then remove that crafted mod.
6. Craft "Item can have 3 crafted mods" unto the item (2 EX). Craft +2 support gems unto the item (2 ex). Craft minions have increased attack and cast speed (4 chaos).
7. Congrats, you are more or less done. You will still have an open suffix on the item. Couple options for this last suffix...
-1. Beastcraft "Grants aspect of the Avian" unto the weapon. If you are using Saqawal's Nest, this will free up a suffix from your amulet or ring. or -2. Slam another suffix onto the item with an special redeemer ex and hope for movement speed. (If you are going the slam route, you may want to start with a higher ivl weapon like a ilvl 73
The total cost of this is going to widely vary depending on the chaos spam luck. If I had to guess, I would say plan on spending 10-16 EX total making the weapon.
Oh, and if you don't want to be bothered by any of this. Femurs of the Saints is 75% of the damage while providing a few other nice benefits (Passive regen, and massive block chance with Vaal Skeletons)
Good luck!
Was wondering why not use a warstaff like a serpentine staff for this craft. Do Fortify gets more commonly roll on mauls, swords and axes?
First off, Qlida, thank you for the guide that you've put together. I've never played a summoner before, and your guide along with the very helpful community, makes playing this character a lot of fun. Thanks again.
There are 3 things I'm confused about (right now!!) is when starting to play, what is the best approach to get all the minions in place. Since I've 5-linked zombies, it takes a lot of mana, so I have to turn off the flesh and stone aura, and then get into a map, cast some skeletons to get corpses, and then find 11. Then turn back on flesh and stone.
Swap blood magic and multistrike, take off CWC gem -> desecrate -> 5 x zombies -> repeat 2 times -> put 2 gems back
Last edited by ActiveSlay on Dec 20, 2019, 1:30:47 PM
Was wondering why not use a warstaff like a serpentine staff for this craft. Do Fortify gets more commonly roll on mauls, swords and axes?
You certainly could do this... and by doing this you also have a chance to hit +2 to all spell gems. Be aware though that staves have a MUCH large possible mod pool (over twice as many), so rolling what you want will be quite a bit harder.
Edit: Nevermind, You said warstaff, that can't roll caster mods.... That does that cut down your mod pool quite a bit, and gives you a much better implicit. It still has more mods possible, but not nearly as bad as I was thinking... Probably worth thinking about! Good idea!
Was wondering why not use a warstaff like a serpentine staff for this craft. Do Fortify gets more commonly roll on mauls, swords and axes?
You certainly could do this... and by doing this you also have a chance to hit +2 to all spell gems. Be aware though that staves have a MUCH large possible mod pool (over twice as many), so rolling what you want will be quite a bit harder.
Edit: Nevermind, You said warstaff, that can't roll caster mods.... That does that cut down your mod pool quite a bit, and gives you a much better implicit. It still has more mods possible, but not nearly as bad as I was thinking... Probably worth thinking about! Good idea!
What you think about fossil crafting instead of chaos spaming?
Let's say you just want those juicy prefixes:
+1 to level of socketed gems
Socketed gems are supported by level 1 fortify
On POEDB, personally I would hesitate between these two combinations:
Metallic (1c), Corroded (14c) & Jagged (1c)
Metallic (1c), Corroted (14c) & Bound (7c) (Chance for minion damage prefix but adds 2 unwanted prefixes in the list and 6c)
Spaming chaos is 1c per try, fossils is between 16c and 22c per try.
How rare is the fortify mod combine with +1 gems when chaos spaming?
Also, would you advice alt spaming + regal, is it worst than chaos spaming because we need 2 prefixes?
