[3.17] Dahbadu's Absolution Guardian | League Starter | Mapper | Bosser (Video)

Description:

I wanted to come up with a minion build that wasn't a Necro, was competitive with high-end Skele Mage Necro, but also cheaper to make and would be a good league starter. I'm not done with this build and I'm still optimizing it, but so far I've met my target.

Video Showcase
From newest to oldest

Video: https://youtu.be/g_VdGwyhnq4

Video: https://youtu.be/4j3xw9TiNJc

Links:

My current PoB: https://pastebin.com/LWwpwTSY

PoE Ninja: https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds?skill=Absolution&sort=dps

If there's interest in this thread, I'll try to keep it updated and answer any questions.

Questions:
These are questions I've received on reddit and elsewhere, compiled below.

Does it have awkward summoning of specters?
You can take the body armour off while summon specters if casting Desecrate beyond The Queen's Hunger radius is annoying. The thing is, your specters rarely die. So the answer is, it's more annoying than w/o wearing a Queen's Hunger, but because my minions are so tanky (Pious Path is great for keeping your minions at full life) I don't often have to worry about remaking them.

I use a Baranite Cleric, Arena Master, Host and Carnage Chieftan. The damage from the Cleric and Master aren't being calculated in the PoB, but it's pretty significant. I'll go more into that in my next video. In the video footage fighting the Rituals, it was earlier in my build before I had access to 4 specters. When fighting The Hidden, I have 4 specters.

I play on SSF, is this build possible?
Yes. I suggest specializing your Atlas so you can farm Syndicate and kill the Mastermind. That will let you get the The Queen's Hunger (which you'll use in the build's final form) and Devouring Diadem (which you'll use until you can make a fancy hat via fossil crafting).

Also spec your Atlas for Delve, because in order to craft the fancy hat you'll need fossils and resonators. Delve is very rewarding and a great way to level up safely too, with a fun gameplay loop. The current hat I'm wearing cost me about 8 ex to craft, although I got kinda lucky.

In terms of the other uniques, they're pretty easy to get.

In the upcoming video I have planned, I'll go through how I started the build, milestones and gear switchups, etc. I basically progressed to T16 maps using a cheap 6-link body armour and Devouring Diadem. I only switched over to The Queens Hunger after I crafted my fancy hat.