Discussion -- Are POE 1 Minion Builds are dead without legacy items??

Maybe I'm dumb or out of touch with the games patches/ developments. I just wanted to discuss/ grab some opinions about Minion Builds as a Topic in POE 1.

Currently in Standard, I am running a Necro Skelemage summoner. Character is sitting with 591% Minion Damage modifier 90% phys damage reduction, 80% ele resistances, 4.1k hp. She's got 4 ghastly eye jewels that each give 20% increase dmg if summoned recently, a That which was taken jewel for group Onslaught + Haste and so on.

With my seemingly decked out end-gear and jewels I can barely if at all clear end game content or if I do it's at a snails pace. The minions survive well enough but the build struggles to dps.

Have any of you had any success with Minion Builds with the most recent patch updates without using legacy items/ jewels? I'm curious if anyone has success or ideas for success with the Necromancer ascendency.

one of my characters was BAMA necromancer this league. i cleared all content except ubers. didnt try those but should be fine for the build. i know BAMA and poison SRS are still strong. not sure about skeletons

I've been playing Doryani prototype Absolution on necromancer in settlers league. Seems pretty good. Maybe not exactly the kind of minion build you're taking about but a large amount of my damage comes from the minions and not just the self cast. Using 4 specters for buffs, from the new corpse items and they seem pretty good to me and AG. I think there a are builds there, but it might not be the typical minion builds that everyone seemed to be playing some time ago. Does look like there is still a fair bit of people playing skelly/zombie/specter. I haven't played much minion builds before though so don't really know. I've hear a lot of people talking up holy relic. Maybe that doesn't exactly count as typical either.

Just forget minions. They are good only when they are OP any other time it is not worth the struggle of babysitting them and dealing with their AI, path finding, recalling, healing, offerings etc.

Minions used to be that 1c build which clears whole game day 1 because of 0 need for items. Now that you actually need as much gear as anyone else or more, do not benefit from self-buffs properly and add the micro-managment of minions it is just masochistic gameplay for no benefit.


I was there when minions were god tier, i was there when they were complete trash that could not clear tier 1map with mirror-tier gear. Today they are meh and the gameplay is hard to justify at that point.

If I invest the same in to bow character i will be what, 20 times faster at all content ingame including boss killing? something like that.
Same for wands, and even melee with new gem kinds is better at everything.

My favorite replacement for minions are ballista totems. Imagine them like stationary hyper-agressive skeleton mages with huge aoe.