[Feedback] About Spectres from summoner

I am an experienced player in Path of Exile 1, not only playing summoners but also creating my own builds and constantly trying new things. I’ve tested hundreds of spectres and all available minions in PoE 1, and in other games, I prefer to play summoners whenever possible.

So far in Path of Exile 2, I've tried around 50 spectres, choosing those that looked interesting or had intriguing abilities and animations.

However, most of these spectres turned out to be unplayable, and here's why:

1. Many spectres seem to only use their abilities against players, not when acting as spectres. As a result, many visually appealing ghosts turn out to be boring, such as the Foul Sage.

2. Several spectres fire projectiles in random directions or change trajectory mid-flight, like the Blood Priestess.

3. Numerous spectres have the tag "slow_movement," making them move slowly. Since there's no Convocation spell in the game, it's impossible to play effectively with them, such as the Rattling Gibbet. Using the target button (`) doesn't solve the problem because spectres deal no damage while moving.

4. The Spirit cost for raising spectres is too high. Paying 70-80-90-100-110-130 Spirit doesn’t match their usefulness compared to regular minions like skeleton mages. Considering the issues listed above, it makes no sense to invest 80-110 Spirit into an inconvenient and weak spectre when you could get 2-3 useful skeletons instead.
Therefore, you might as well nerf all normal minions to make these pathetic and expensive spectres look acceptable by comparison.

5. The support gem Enormity has an excessive cost increase. A 30% multiplier plus 10 Spirit for 20% more damage and health is something no sane player would ever include in a build unless it's purely for novelty—like making a big spectre even bigger—but it's unplayable. For instance, a Crested Behemoth with this gem costs 234 Spirit, and a Faridun Impaler costs 169 Spirit—it’s absurd.

Regarding minions in general:
-Monsters rarely aggro onto minions and almost always attack the player directly. Therefore, during any fight, you have to run circles around elite monsters or bosses.


To sum up once again:
Playing a summoner without tools like Convocation to control and move minions is absolute garbage. I don’t understand how you can call Path of Exile 2 a modern game, praise its engaging gameplay for melee characters with combos, jumps, dodges, etc., yet fail to provide summoners with basic tools to manage their minions.
As a result, the summoner gameplay in poe2 feels worse than Diablo 2 from 20 years ago. We’re just walking slowly, followed by even slower minions. This isn’t “next-gen action RPG” gameplay—it’s depressing trash.

Did you try the Vaal Guards with Explosion Cannons? ONLY PLAYABLE SPECTER DROPS THE FPS TO 5 while attacking. It's like they never even tested the specters, that's why they told us to "discover them all". this is CLEARLY A QA TEST USING PAYING CUSTOMERS. It is annoying since I thought EA meant we will provide feedback, not literally do their jobs for them.
Going over each specter just to see every single one fair to deal as much dmg as the most awful specter to play with (the massive FX spam is making no one want to play with me when I use them. It becomes a "ok you can just try to not die while we clear for you" when I get into parties because they are asking me to remove the only dps I got in my build.)

Currently, the problem lies not in optimization or damage output, but in the lack of tools to modify the actions and behavior of minions.

In PoE 1, I can create a build out of nearly any strange spectre because I have the necessary tools:

-If they lack speed, I can equip a movement speed gem or add Frenzy charges.

-I can instantly teleport them to a specific spot on the screen, pull them out of dangerous areas, or remove them from under a boss attack.

-I can adjust their aggression or defensive behavior.

-I can add multi-attack or multi-casting capabilities.

-I can convert their damage into whatever I desire.

PoE 2 lacks these tools, resulting in a lack of engaging gameplay and build flexibility for summoners.

As a non minion build Witch, I tried several different Spectres and laughed as their base form (base meaning without my passives/gear buffing them but still using as many supports as possible at max gem quality) couldn't even do 10% damage to lone white mobs.

The spirit cost for these things is absolutely silly.

One thing is definitely clear. GGG is afraid of players having fun playing their game.

Terracotta Soldier best spectre!