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Soulwrest Necromancer Build Guide (PoE Ultimatum 3.14)
INTRODUCTION
Soulwrest is the name of the build as well as the Unique item the build is designed around, which focuses on the
Summon Phantasm Support minions. Due to being focused around this specific Unique, it is limited to requiring this item for SSF players. The build has been brought in to killing T19 100% Delirium maps, A8 Sirus, Uber Elder among others, and is a very enjoyable build with a very different playstyle compared to most other summoner builds.
The build focuses on dealing massive amounts of Cold damage, providing the defensive mechanic of Chilling and Freezing enemies, on top of the vast army you bring forth blocking incoming projectiles, as well as a solid effective life pool. It’s very easy & straightforward to start this build with just the staff, and then upgrading it from there towards the high budget version.
Below you can see the build in action from my YouTube Guide. Do note that the video might be outdated in terms of information, and you should always look at this guide to make sure you have the updated version.
BUILD OVERVIEW
In this section I will outline the pros, cons, & the general playstyle. This will allow you to determine if the build is for you or not!
PROS
+ Beefy – Despite being a minion build, it packs a very comfortable eHP # as well as mitigation, allowing it to function in Hardcore very well.
+ League Starter – The only true mandatory item for this build is, of course, the Soulwrest, which is usually very cheap even during the first few days of a league release. There have been leagues where this staff has been a bit pricey the first few days, in which case you will simply use
Summon Skeletons until you are able to afford the staff to enable the build.
+ Bosser – Minion builds are in a current state of bliss where bosses simply just melt with the damage output available.
+ Unique Play Style – Unlike most summoner builds, this provides you with a new way of playing the game and in my opinion is more than welcome in order to avoid doing the same thing every league.
CONS
– Slight Ramp-Up Time – The build requires you to consistently re-summon your Phantasms; this is done by consuming corpses that you generate yourself, as you are then following up with casting your Offering skill to consume them for a buff.
– Minion Build – Since your minions are doing the heavy lifting, defensive layers, such as leeching, are not possible in this build; this means you don’t want to be having any kissing sessions with packs of enemies or bosses.
– Damage Halts – In super low budget, you might encounter bosses with heavy AoE damage, and if the map modifiers are nasty there’s a risk that your entire army gets wiped, forcing you to re-summon your minions again. This is a rather rare situation since the Phantasms are ranged minions.
– Socket Starved – The build is extremely socket-starved and will therefor be using 2x Unset Rings.
PLAYSTYLE
Since you are summoning your Phantasms by consuming corpses, the build forces you to keep track of how many minions you have out, and you should consistently during fights make sure you have corpses at-the-ready to be consumed by your Offering skill (either Flesh Offering or the more defensive style
Bone Offering) to buff yourself and your army as well as creating more Phantasm minions.
The duration of the minions very comfortably puts you in a situation where you don’t have to consistently spam new minions between packs, as you’re clearing maps. Since these minions are able to take aggro from enemies, bosses can feel like a joke as the boss will target your minions as you’re summoning new ones.
DAMAGE SCALING AND DEFENSIVE LAYERS
The build abuses a variety of mechanics to further the damage output from your Phantasms. This includes a variety of increasing projectile damage taken by the enemies, lowering their cold resistances, as well as converting all Physical Damage the Phantasms deal to Cold, to make full use of these mechanics.
Defensively, it has a good amount of Life, sitting at 6,000+ with increased maximum resistances and an army of minions around you; it works very well in Hardcore as well as in Softcore.
PoB, PASSIVE SKILL TREE & GEM LINKS
The PoB community fork created by Localidentity is the only version being kept up to date, so make sure you have the correct version: PoB Community Fork.
Here is the Soulwrest PoB Low Budget, and for a quick glance over the finished skill tree for this version, check out this link.
Here is the High Budget Version and for a quick glance over the finished skill tree for this version, check out this link.
You can find more information about this, as well as about all the gem links in the build, on our dedicated page.
GEARING
A lot of the end-game gear can easily be crafted, to learn how to craft as well as learn how to craft specific items check out my crafting guides here.
You can read more details about our gearing recommendations on the dedicated page, but for now you can see a summarized version below.
Item Slot | Item Name | Rarity |
---|---|---|
Head | ![]() ![]() |
Unique / Rare |
Amulet | Life then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Chest | Life then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Gloves | ![]() |
Unique |
Boots | Life then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Belt | ![]() |
Unique |
Rings | Life then Res/Attributes as needed | Rare |
Weapons | ![]() |
Unique |
ASCENDANCY, BANDIT & PANTHEON RECOMMENDATIONS
You can read about the recommended Ascendancy, Bandit choice, and Pantheon Power recommendations for this build on our dedicated page.
LEVELING
The current meta of leveling through the Campaign Acts 1-10 is to simply never use minions. However, this guide is not designed to guide you to finish Kitava in 2 hours; it is a build guide. With that said, the following suggestions for leveling makes sure you don’t have to use any Orb of Regret to change your build when you get the staff.
BEFORE YOU ENABLE MINIONS
Before you are able to utilize minions for your leveling experience, you will need to make sure they function for actual clearing: this means giving them tools to use for hitting multiple targets. This means you are able to level with minions as early as level 8, as that’s the restriction before you can get Melee Splash Support. The skills listed below are the ones I prefer to use until I hit level 8:
Stormblast Mine for single target
Freezing Pulse for clearing
Frost Bomb for clearing when you get it, instead of the Freezing Pulse
Once you reach level 8 you are able to purchase Melee Splash Support which costs 1 t
Orb of Transmutation. This can then be combined with either
Summon Skeletons or
Summon Raging Spirit, whichever you prefer. The links are slightly different depending on which one you decide to go for. Starting with the Skeleton approach the links should look like this:
If you go for the Raging Spirits (SRS) the links are similar, however, as soon as you get to Act 4-5 at level 38, you will be able to get Unleash Support, which I prefer or
Spell Echo Support, which makes this type of leveling very smooth.
Do keep in mind that if you feel like you’re lacking single target damage vs any boss during the acts, you can always change your Melee Splash a red damage support gem such as Added Fire Damage Support or
Melee Physical Damage Support. Once you get a 4-link, I would go for the Melee Physical and later you can change the Splash for
Multistrike Support instead, for single target.
The Aura decision comes in Act 3, which is when we enable Hatred for optimal damage output.
For more general leveling advice, we recommend the following guides.
- Our step-by-step leveling walkthrough, which allows even more experienced players to save time and speed through the leveling process.
- Our guide to Unique Items for leveling, which helps you gear up your characters for the leveling process.
- Our beginner leveling guide, which answers many of the questions new players might have and will set you on the right path.
QUESTIONS?
To guarantee that my guides are tools you can utilize to enhance your experience in Path of Exile, all you need to do is post your question in the comments and I will personally 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 if you’d posted it in the comments! 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 Exalted Orb drops!