Soulwrest Necromancer Build Guide (PoE Sentinel 3.18)

GhazzyTV

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INTRODUCTION

Soulwrest 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 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 (high budgets), and is a very enjoyable build with a very different playstyle compared to most other summoner builds.

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 Do note that the video might be outdated in terms of information, and you should always look at this guide to make sure you have the updated version.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 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 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 Ring 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 Flesh Offering or the more defensive style Bone Offering 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 agro 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 is going full brute-force style with massing minions to destroy enemies quickly.

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.

You can find more information about this, as well as about all the gem links in the build, on our dedicated page.

PoB, Passive Skill Tree & Gem Link 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.

Gear Page

Item Slot Item Name Rarity
Head The Devouring Diadem The Devouring Diadem; if too expensive, any Life, Res/Attribute Helmet Unique / Rare
Amulet Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Chest Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Gloves Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Boots Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Belt Darkness Enthroned Darkness Enthroned Unique
Rings Life then Res/Attributes as needed Rare
Weapons Soulwrest Soulwrest 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.

Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheon Powers

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 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 Melee Splash Support. The skills listed below are the ones I prefer to use until I hit level 8:

Once you reach level 8 you are able to purchase Melee Splash Support Melee Splash Support which costs 1 tOrb of Transmutation Orb of Transmutation. This can then be combined with either Summon Skeletons Summon Skeletons or Summon Raging Spirit 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 Unleash Support, which I prefer or Spell Echo Support 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 Added Fire Damage Support or Melee Physical Damage Support 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 Multistrike Support instead, for single target.

The Aura decision comes in Act 3, which is when we enable Hatred Hatred for optimal damage output.

For more general leveling advice, we recommend the following guides.

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 Exalted Orb drops!

Changelog

  • Build is now updated for 3.16 Scourge League!

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  2. xxXicemanXxx

    Posts
    2

    hello.

    I was wondering if you could answer several questions if thats not a problem.

    1. i was playing a similar build that uses cyclone with cast while channeling for auto desecrate and flesh offering but the build only used 3 or 4 support spectres (frenzy and power charg apes),skitterbots and AG and was slow as fuck while farming maps or in general, on bosses good but not a great farmer. Would it be possible to use that chest queens hunger if im not mistaken that procs all offerings every 5 seconds and use desecrate as a move skill button? Or use corpsewalker boots? Or do you see another way to automate that whole process without cyclone ? Because the queens hunger is usually dirt cheap and could be used very early in the league?

    2. would it not be better to use that ring that eats lv 20 support gems and create a 5l- golem or zombie ring and use a regular belt instead?
    3. Also in consideration with the new league mechanics and altars and new boss fights do you even think this would be a good league starter?
    4. I never played this build in delve before because i tried it literally at the end of the league. how viable is it as a delver? Can you got to 1k depth?

    I was thinking going for either occultist vortex/cold snap , bleed bow gladiator or this build and i cant decide which one to take?

    best regards and thank you for the help.

  3. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @xxXicemanXxx:

    Of course!

    1) You can absolutely automate this build very well, however you still want to make sure you have your offering buff up & running which led to me not automating as I could get better numbers out of the build in both clear speed efficiency as well as bossing.

    2) The Hungry Loop The Hungry Loop is always a cool choice to add I personally never liked replacing a ring for it though.

    3) Yes I absolutely believe this build will work very well in 3.13 Ritual League

    4) 1k with heavy investments sure, do keep in mind that deep delving limits your build choices the deeper you go whilst higher budget investment can make most builds reach 1-1.5k depth some even deeper.

    My Cold DoT vortex works wonders as well I sadly don’t have a bleed bow guide at this time.

    3.13 Update Video: https://youtu.be/k2wny4K0U-U

  4. paganizer

    Posts
    8

    Would Guardian be a decent choice instead of necro.. just to play something else than necro :P Numbers in POB seem to be similar, just wondering if I’m missing some crucial stuff.

  5. xxXicemanXxx

    Posts
    2

    On 13/01/2021 at 7:55 PM, GhazzyTV said

    @xxXicemanXxx:

    Of course!

    1) You can absolutely automate this build very well, however you still want to make sure you have your offering buff up & running which led to me not automating as I could get better numbers out of the build in both clear speed efficiency as well as bossing.

    2) The Hungry Loop The Hungry Loop is always a cool choice to add I personally never liked replacing a ring for it though.

    3) Yes I absolutely believe this build will work very well in 3.13 Ritual League

    4) 1k with heavy investments sure, do keep in mind that deep delving limits your build choices the deeper you go whilst higher budget investment can make most builds reach 1-1.5k depth some even deeper.

    My Cold DoT vortex works wonders as well I sadly don’t have a bleed bow guide at this time.

    3.13 Update Video: https://youtu.be/k2wny4K0U-U

    Tyvm for the reply.

    I forgot to mention several things that i think are important to say:

    a) me and several other players that i know and have used minion builds with apes or similar support spectres before know that they tend to die in late endgame. Like t15 or t16 blight maps or simulacrums or delirium maps or simple delve.For example i used the classic carrion necro build with apes and the apes all died on depth 300 in delve, even though it was the end of the boss fight still i was suprised. Im one of the many players thtaeven lost AG with knigmaker on t16-17 juiced maps, but that was on another build(syndicate ops). This was one of the biggest factors i took into consideration for choosing a new build after the new spectre nerfs. Because if the spectres died on the old patch how will the stay alive with the new nerf and the new league mechanic where you have to fight 6 or more bosses at the same time? And since apes are pretty much the whole point in this build giving extra frenzy and power charges to your minions you think this build is viable for late endgame without respec or using minion life jewels?

    b) To be completely fair i was never a fan of one handed weapons because imho you loose a lot of defensive stats and resistances from either shield or quiver slot. Even though i got in the endgame with the cyclone cwc soulwrest and managed to clear t14-15 maps the build for me struggled a lot in heist, in map clearing and i was dying a lot. Although your build is completely different but its not automated and you use more minions was the sole reason i was considering this build in the first place. The only downside for me is that i dont like multi press button builds, left click and one more button and flask builds is the way for me. This is why when i was browsing through your builds i noticed the occultist build. And since occultist got buffs all around the board i thinks im going for either that one or this one but im just not confident enough this necro build can perform early and especially in late game because of the spectre and carrion nerfs and im not the type of player that has 3 or more different chars in every league and likes to experiment and try out builds. 2 is my limit. one starter(main) and one delver.

  6. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @Paganizer:

    Guardian is arguably better depending on who you ask. For me, it’s a matter of personal preference.

    @xxXIcemanXxx:

    During Harvest I lost 9 high budget AG’s due to the shotgunning lightning crops. There’s always some content that proves to be more dangerous than others for minions, the same goes for utility spectres. I’ve rarely had any issues with utility spectres dying when they’ve had Meat Shield support in t18/t19 100% deli maps, but it happened sometimes. That’s why it’s important for that type of content to not rely heavily on the utility spectres but rather see them as a nice buff. On another note that’s far above the point of the build guide as it is mainly here to help the people looking for a low budget build! :)

    Another thing to keep in mind is that the higher end-game content you tackle the more pressure you have on the rest of your character to be ready for it. So let’s say you have an issue with utility spectres dying in t19 100% deli maps. That’s because enemies have a chance to shoot at you before they die with no blocking of projectiles to avoid your already meat shield supported spectres from dying. Easiest solution is not to beef up the utility spectres as t19 100% deli maps will one shot them even before the 3.13 nerf. So the only solution is to juice up your dmg source and speed efficiency to make sure that they are dealing with as many enemies as possible as fast as possible to minimize the risk of your spectres taking dmg in the first place. A great example of this is my 4.7k ES spectre build with perfect gear, it dies if anything looks in its general direction in the t16-t19 100% deli maps but it did 517mil sDPS which I even had lowered for the sake of getting them faster to kill enemies before they (mostly at least) had a chance to shoot back.

    But yeah as you state this build does require a lot more than 1 button to be played :)

  7. Lostpike

    Posts
    1

    Hey Ghazzy,

    My brother plans on playing this build in Ritual and I want to be able to level and play with him. Do you have any suggestions for good one/two button builds (ie not crazy complex) that would work well with this build?

  9. Rosseforp

    Posts
    1

    Hey Ghazzy,
    can you tell me something about the triad grip sockets? 4 green for the damage, but wich gems do we have to put in this green 4-link? Second wind and dash maybe, but idk.

  10. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @Rosseforp:

    Should be listed in the Gem Section, we should be using Dash with Second wind, Vaal Haste & Potentially adding Phase Run!

  11. Quiver94

    Posts
    1

    Hey Ghazzy!

    First of all I wanted to thank you for your builds, I’ve been having a blast with them! This league I wanted to go with something different and decided on your version of Soulwrest Necromancer, with just a few changes: support minions on boots, and a cyclone-cast on channel setup on chest (Just found it easier to have 100% uptime of phantasms during bosses this way as they almost always insta die when they are hit with anything). They only drawback being I have to get close every 5s to apply EE with cyclone (and to keep fortify buff up).

    After 2 weeks of casual play I’m almost done with the high budget build (lets put it this way: The next item on my to-buy list is an Awakened GMP). Just had 2 questions for you:

    • Is there something else I should be aiming to buy after woke GMP? If not, could you please recommend me a build I could easily respec to (anything minion-related would be good)? It’s just that my interest kinda falls off when I consider a build being “finished”.
    • I’ve being having a bit of trouble keeping the Chieftains alive on juiced up t16s. I tried out having 3 Arena Master, but they almost always overlap when casting. Also tried 1 They of Tul but the Snow Clock obstructs the floor way too much, I would rather be able to see. Any other support spectres you could recommend?

    Thanks in advance, and wish you a good day!

  12. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @Quiver94:

    Hey, glad you like them sir!

    After woke GMP unless there are minmaxing areas you can always try my spectre build guide, it’s what I’m running right now and the roof of upgrades available to that build goes from league-start 0 ex all the way to multiple mirrors :)

    Yeah utility spectres have had some struggles this league, the Arena Masters are going to overlap the buffs which is annoying but it’s what we’ve got unless you want to mix some other utilty spectres in on top of having 1 arena master. Like you mentioned :)

    A nice addition could be to add 1 Wild Bristle Matron https://poedb.tw/us/Wild_Bristle_Matron they have a roar ability which works very well in debuffing enemies for increased safety. IIRC it is a action speed reduction debuff it applies.

  13. Wyvern

    Posts
    18

    Hi and thanks for this build.
    Can you explain why the staff doesn’t needs links to work? Thanks.

  14. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @Wyvern:

    My pleasure!
    The skill provided by the staff itself is what we are utilizing and it will take any support gems provided in the item no matter if they are linked or not :)

  15. Wyvern

    Posts
    18

    Tnx for your answer, now it’s clear.
    I’m now levelling with summon skellies+summon phantasm support.
    I’ve both on my Tabula, both minions gain buffs from same linked gems? Example: 6L=summon skellies+summon phantasm+minion damage+minion speed…
    Another question, for Elemental Equilibrium i use the storm brand for lightnign damage but i can’t see nothing for fire…ho can i manage that?

  16. CrabBucket

    Posts
    1

    Hello! I am doing a build that is essentially this (but it’s a guardian and uses saqawals and cyclone + desecrate + fort + flesh + cwc) . However I am playing with my friend who is a full aurabot. How should I be changing the gear to try to get the most bossing dps? Currently, I am just not running the non avian auras + skitter bots and I’m down on all the aura support on the tree for more abyss jewels. I suppose Diadem isn’t so good if you do not need the auras? Can I try to just jam in a Hungry Loop + Minion helmet for even more stuff?

  17. RustyGeneral

    Posts
    1

    Hiya Ghazzy!
    This is my first league and I have to say thanks for the great build! Have been playing for a couple of weeks now and I really enjoyed it! So, I am currently upgrading to the higher budget build and was confused why you took ‘Avatar of Fire’ in the passive tree. Since we already deal lightning damage from Orb of storms doesn’t that already trigger EE? Also, what benefits does ‘rain of arrows’ do to the build?

    Thanks in advance!

  18. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @Wyvern:

    Hey, pardon the delayed response!
    The way EE works is that if you hit an enemy with lightning dmg, the enemy will get increased lightning resistance and decreased cold and fire resistance.

    If your storm brand deals both lightning & fire damage the enemy gets increased lightning & fire res and decreased cold resistance!

    @CrabBucket:

    Hey,
    That would be one way of doing it sure! You can either optimize your character to play with your friend or make it still playable without him. it’s up to you in the end. If you don’t run any specific auras you can go pretty ham on utility tools.

    @RustyGeneral:

    Hey,
    My pleasure man! The AoF is a matter of personal preference, I take it to avoid frost bomb from ever triggering incorrect EE but it’s not needed as Storm Brand is overwriting it asap anyways.

    The RoA is a placeholder as in the guide itself you get to chose between Vaal Haste, Vaal Grace or any other green gem that you want as we are forced to use 4 green triads either way. (I have since this guide added the “options” in the PoBs and unchecked that they are being used to avoid confusion)

  19. Dark Nero

    Posts
    3

    Why does the high-budget BoB has 56% Fire res, 36% Lightning res etc.?

    On 24/02/2021 at 12:50 PM, GhazzyTV said

    (I have since this guide added the “options” in the PoBs and unchecked that they are being used to avoid confusion)


    Where can updated PoB be downloaded?

  20. GhazzyTV

    Moderator

    Posts
    889

    @Dark Nero:

    It is updated? All my guides are always updated & ready before a league releases.

    The resistances & attributes is something I’ve ignored as all my guides states that you’ll need to cap your elemental res & get enough attributes to use your skills. Reason for this is that in the past a lot of new players asked me where to find exact replicas of items listed in the PoB such as having exactly 43% fire res on a pair of boots for example. So to avoid this from happening I’m neglecting these numbers on PoB and simply tell everyone that you always need to cap your elemental resistances as well as having enough attributes to wear the gear and/or skill-gems for the build. Where these resistances are placed makes no difference.

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