GhazzyTV's Spectre Summoner Necromancer Build Guide (PoE Crucible 3.21)

May 21st, 2023, 09:55

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Introduction

In my opinion the strongest summoner build in the game. It has great clearing with absolutely insane single target damage output. This build guide will always be updated to be using the best spectres in the game for optimal performance. Due to how straight forward the build is you can easily beat all end-game content & I would argue for this to be one of the smoothest league starter summoner builds available as well!

Spectres in general can be a bit tricky. One should not forget that minion builds are the most complex genre of builds in Path of Exile. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know and then some.

Below you can see the latest update video I made on this build from YouTube. Do note that the video might be outdated in terms of information, and you should always look at this guide to make sure you have the updated version. In this case the previous videos on this build showcases the incorrect spectre and we are now using the Forged Frostbearers hence the decision to remove the gameplay showcase video.

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

+ League Starter – There are no direct mandatory uniques but getting your hands on Darkness Enthroned is a significant damage increase for the build, this is a rather common and very cheap unique item.

+ Bosser – Minion builds are in a current state of bliss where bosses simply just melt with the damage output available.

+ A Lot Of Variety Options – The build is showing the play style that I personally prefer. You can always change around and tweak this to your own liking.

+ Insanely High Roof For High Budget Options – Upgrading this build is very easy, straight forward and offers a lot of options ranging from lower budget investment to make the build better all the way to mirror tier gear if you so wish and can afford.

Cons

– 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.

– Socket Starved – To be optimal with this build you’re going to be extremely socket starved.

– Act Leveling – Using Spectres to level with during the campaign acts requires twink gear to function. This means we will be using other methods to level with til level 65-70.

Playstyle

It’s rather normal that you’ll be re-summoning your zombies before your gear & gem levels gets better which can be a bit annoying in the early stage map progression. Once you’ve grabbed yourself a trigger crafted weapon a lot of nuisances this build brings to the table is pretty much non-existing after that point.

Normally you don’t want to face-tank bosses but instead let your minions do the tanking as they melt super fast.

Damage Scaling and Defensive Layers

The damage scaling is all from ramping up the level of your Raise Spectre skill-gem & getting minion related stats whilst we cover ourselves from both having an army of minions soaking agro & stray projectiles & high block % chance.

PoB and Passive Skill Tree

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

There’s the low budget PoB: https://pobb.in/Czp2y1kXy2ZU, do keep in mind that this is VERY low budget.

Medium & High budget can both be found in this PoB: https://pobb.in/Wk7fe7_AjXxh

To calculate the actual damage output your spectres will be doing I’ve simulated this as accurately as possible with PoB, however, it will display a slightly higher number than what you’ll actually be doing. If you’d like to calculate the exact damage output you’ll simply take the “Average Damage” your Spectres are doing per hit, multiply that with the “Cast Rate”, multiply that with the amount of Spectres you have, multiply that with the amount of projectiles they’re shooting (assuming you have Greater Volley linked).

You can find more information on our dedicated page.

PoB & Passive Skill Tree 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, Jewel & Flask Page

Item Slot	Item Name	Rarity
Head	Life then res/attributes, +1-2 level of all minion skills	Rare
Amulet	Life then Res/Attributes as needed or The Jinxed Juju	Rare or Unique
Chest	Life then Res/Attributes as needed (Higher budget can get a Delve dropped chest with “+1 to maximum spectres”)	Rare
Gloves	Life then Res/Attributes as needed	Rare
Boots	Bones of Ullr If a Rare then go life then Res/Attributes as needed	Unique or Rare
Belt	Darkness Enthroned	Unique
Rings	Life then Res/Attributes as needed	Rare
Weapon	Minion DMG with +1 level of spells and/or minion gems Wand	Rare
Shield	Life with recovery on block shield or a The Surrender	Rare or Unique

Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheon

You can read about the recommended Ascendancy, Bandit choice, and Pantheon Power recommendations for this build on our dedicated page.

Ascendancy, Bandit & Pantheon Power Page

Leveling

Spectres are rarely useable in the early stage of the campaign as they need higher gem-level, so before we get to that point we’ll be using Absolution all the way till 65-70+ before making a switch to our beloved Spectres! Below you’ll find a quick TLDR to get started whilst a more in-depth step by step leveling for each act can be found inside the PoB:

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 till 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 cost 1 t Orb of Transmutation. This can then be combined with Summon Raging Spirit. 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:

You can use the Raging Spirits up to the point where you’ll switch to Spectres or you switch to Absolution leveling which should be significantly smoother at level 12.

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.

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 Divine Orb drops!