GhazzyTV's Chains Of Command Necromancer Build Guide (PoE Secrets of the Atlas 3.26)
Disclaimers
Disclaimer 1: The build requires the Replenishing Remedies Amulet anointment and your Animate Guardian to be level 20 at least, before starting the build. In addition, it requires certain specific unique pieces to function properly.
Player Uniques: Chains of Command,
The Writhing Jar x2
AG Uniques: Terminus Est,
Gravebind,
Zahndethus' Cassock. Other defensive chests are fine, but this one is the cheapest usually.
Disclaimer 2: Due to the above-mentioned, this build cannot be played until those things are acquired. You will have to level up as something else and transition over. Wether that something be Absolution,
Summon Raging Spirit,
Animate Weapon or something else is entirely up to you.
Disclaimer 3: Due to the current price of both Chains of Command itself and especially
Gravebind, the build is currently not something I would suggest you start with in Secrets of the Atlas. Skeleton Mages is a much safer option.
3.26 brings about some very exciting changes for Chains. The main downside of the build was that BoB could die. And when he died, he took all our currency with him. This no longer happens, as AG (BoB) no longer loses items on death.
Introduction
The Chains Of Command Animate Weapon Build has been one that many of us have wanted to make work since the introduction of Chains of Command. Having been introduced alongside Bestiary League, the play style was truly out there, and the concept of buffing up your Animate Guardian, putting insane weapons on the line to make him & the Animate Weapons deal huge damage gave us a truly unique way to play the game. The build, in its initial form, felt rather clunky and was too difficult to really make work. All of this changed with the introduction of
Gravebind in 3.16. Having played & heavily tested the build myself, I am more than happy to say that I can finally bring this concept to life.
Some people view Chains of Command entirely as an afk Blight mapping build. This guide will not cover that, as it aims to be pretty generalist and simply play the game normally. Some creators focus on that content, however.
Build Overview
In this section, I will outline the pros, cons, and general play style. This will allow you to determine if this is the right build for you!
Pros
+ Mapping Very comfortably and highly automated mapping, for a minion build.
+ Fresh Meat While most other minion builds wanted to, and couldn’t, run Fresh Meat, we get to keep it up permanently while mapping.
+ Clear Speed – We get to utilise all six of our links and have melee splash at the same time, as it’s built into our armour and we can therefore run dedicated single target supports all around and mow down our enemies.
+ Unique Play Style – Putting fun-looking uniques on BoB is always a good time. Giant hovering swords are pretty funny to look at
Cons
– Unique Play Style – Due to the nature of this build’s play style, it is a build that not everyone will find enjoyable. I strongly recommend watching the gameplay video before starting this build.
– Gem Levels are necessary – While BoB no longer takes items with him on death, the build stops functioning if he goes down. So, ideally, you want a reasonably levelled AG before starting out (18 +)
– Bossing can be difficult – This build is not suited for big bossing. If that is your goal, I would recommend that you do not play chains.
Play Style
The unique components of Chains of Command make an Animated Weapon summon of the weapon that your Animate Guardian holds on kill. We equip our Animate Guardian with a
Rebuke of the Vaalor high PDPS weapon, alongside the aforementioned
Gravebind to ensure that each kill happening around your Guardian is considered to be his. To get the ball rolling, 1
The Writhing Jar is mandatory, and 2 can help make it feel smoother.
Once the initial summons have been created, you are free to run through the map casting your movement skill of choice and convocation as everything around you blows up spectacularly.
You can sustain your The Writhing Jar with flask nodes on the tree.
Damage Scaling And Defensive Layers
Scaling the damage with Chains Of Command relies heavily on the weapon used by the Animate Guardian in the low-budget version that is the Terminus Est as we are looking to hit hard for a low price. We get to benefit fully from
Fresh Meat Support due to
Gravebind and the built-in weapon resummoning chance on kill. As swords are replaced frequently, the buff is always active while we are mapping. It does not work for bosses, however.
The defences of this build are pretty generic. Ailment immunity, block, recovery on block and resistance. We are by no means a very tanky girl.
Important PoB Notes
All my guides use Path of Building. We have a simple guide for you that shows how to import my build into Path of Building. You can find the guide here
- Here’s the low & Medium budget PoB including gear information for the Animate Guardian : https://pobb.in/Q2_O85pgJEAr
- Here’s the High Budget PoB including information on AG and alternative setup: https://pobb.in/3Jp9T5V1LSJD
Please note that I do not recommend that most players opt for this budget. Chains is somewhat limited in what content it can comfortably handle due to sword survivability, and you cannot recover investment placed in the AG.
I strongly suggest you read the PoB’s note section before proceeding.
There are too many open questions regarding which defensive nodes are necessary now, and other speculations that I simply am not comfortable posting a budget for higher investment until some testing has been done in 3.26.
These PoB’s are coming, but they are not finished cooking yet.
Gearing
The gear for Chains of Command is rather self-explanatory. Our Chains of Command is mandatory for the build, and it does not need to be 6-linked as the sockets will all apply to the skills provided in the body armour in the same way that the Whispering Ice staff works. Also, making sure you get
The Writhing Jar & flask recovery nodes on the tree, which makes the build function smoothly.
Item Slot | Item Name | Rarity |
Head | ![]() |
Unique |
Amulet | ![]() |
Rare |
Chest | ![]() |
Unique |
Gloves | Life, then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Boots | Life & Movement Speed then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Belt | ![]() |
Unique |
Rings | Life then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Weapon | Increased minion damage, Attack speed, and Trigger Socketed Spell craft | Rare |
Shield | Recover on block shield – See Gear page for details | Rare |
Animate Guardian Gear
Item Slot | Item Name | Rarity | |
Head | ![]() ![]() |
Unique – Mask should be acquired as soon as possible. | |
Chest | d![]() ![]() |
Unique | This is replaced by ![]() |
Gloves | ![]() |
Unique | |
Weapon | ![]() |
![]() |
|
Shield | ![]() |
Unique |
Ascendancy, Bandit & Pantheon Recommendations
Early league, I prefer to help Alira. Resistances can be a bit tight.
With better gear, I tend to swap to Kill All.
Levelling
You level whichever witch build you prefer, and then respec once you’re in maps and have the gear.
The build will not function without the setup mentioned in the disclaimer at the top of the guide.
Questions?
To guarantee that my guides are tools you can utilise to enhance your experience in Path of Exile, you may have questions. Please join the PoE Vault discord, and they will attend to them as soon as possible.
Final Notes
As much as I love making build guides, it is very crucial in a game like Path of Exile that you play the game the way you enjoy playing it. With that said, if you’ve made any tweaks to the build compared to what I’m showing in this guide, I would love it if you shared this in my Discord. It’s an effective way to show other approaches, and it helps me grow as a build guide creator!
I hope you found the build guide useful, and I wish you all many Divine Orb drops!