Minion patch and support gems

Since the minion patch is coming soon, and possibly making minions more fun to play with, I was starting to consider some interesting build ideas.

Of course most minion users will be witches, templars, and maybe shadows, but I was thinking about a duelist. I haven't played with minions much at all. Do people know if this setup will work?

Summon Zombie:
Item Quality
Knockback
Faster Attacks
Culling Strike

There are minion life/speed/damage support gems - does this mean you can ONLY use those to benefit minions? This seems kind of skewed and I wonder why GGG just doesn't have more support gems effect summoned minions. So far in POE, there are very few unintuitive things. Faster Attacks might intuitively not work, since Summon Zombie is a spell, and faster attacks only effects skills, but shouldn't item quality at least work?

To me, it seems as though minion based builds will always be difficult because there will be less creative options. Why can't I give my minions knockback on hit? Or blind enemies on hit? This would give purpose to summoners who don't start as a witch and would follow the philosophy of POE's design thus far. What if I want my minions to be supportive and not huge damage dealers? What if I want a small amount of minions, but they can attack fast and have increased stun duration? Or maybe they attack hard, slow and have culling strike?

I believe most of those will work. The Item Quality support symbol does appear when I link the two together on my Templar, but I don't see a way to confirm it 100% on the character sheet.

You think Knockback works? I'd love to try a knockback based minion build. Or maybe blind. I'm not sure yet.

I'm running a minion / bow build for my shadow and it's pretty amazing. They're mainly meat shields, so the only necessary support gem for me is minion life. However, I started experimenting with red gems with my skeletons. I think I have something like increased melee damage, added fire damage, and increased elemental damage and they hit actually quite hard. I don't see myself needing any kind of knockback, slow, or stun with minions since they're tanking all monsters just fine anyway. Damage, health, and speed are the best support gems.


The issue I have with minions is that they get lost too easily. I can't even count the number of times I found my zombies hiding in a corner... literally. But that's getting patched, right? : )

What is a necromancer build anyway? Does it use minions as the main damage source?

No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. Minion support gems only work on minions but LOTS of other gems work too. Minions are quite flexible. :)

Knockback should work, chance to blind does, and I have lightning damage and chance to flee on my skellies so I know those work. I don't know about culling strike but it probably works. Devs have confirmed that increased item quality and quantity supports work on minions if the mob dies from a minion blow. Faster attack works for melee minions like zombies, but not for specters raised from a caster.
http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/13783

Minions are pretty flexible between the choices of #/damage/life passives, Nec. Aegis, Minion Instability, and all the different support gems that work on minions.

As far as making a minion duelist, your main challenge will be having enough +int to raise your zombie skill gem to a level where they don't die instantly. Isn't duelist the str/dex hybrid? So you're looking at a triple int/dex/str hybrid. It doesn't sound very strong. :-/

You'll have to mind your mana pool. On my witch, summoning all 5 of my +life/+dmg supported lvl 11 zombies takes most of my mana. (I use flasks and have high regen to support this.) If you don't raise the level of your minon skill gem and buff minion life with passives or supports, your zombies will be squishy. Could look at a mana leech support gem to help though you do have to have enough mana to raise the zombies to start with. I would plan a tree that picks up +int nodes aiming for minion passives and maybe some +mana.

I see, thanks for clearing that all up. So minion-only support gems just exist so witches don't need to invest in dex/str to fully augment summons.

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anubite a écrit :

I see, thanks for clearing that all up. So minion-only support gems just exist so witches don't need to invest in dex/str to fully augment summons.

Right! I just edited to add a few thoughts to a summoning duelist. IMO it would be a tricky build because of the challenge of getting high enough base life on the minions. Damage would be easy with str/dex gems and you could drop a Rejuv totem to help keep minions up.

Well, int isn't a big problem for me. I have the amulet (level 20 requirement) that adds 100 to all 3 stats. Mana may become an issue, but perhaps not if I use all mana gear, or grab blood magic.

If I decide to do a minion build with open beta, I might go Marauder. Would easier to grab some int that way. Was thinking of doing 2h Staff + resolute strike + blood magic + supported minion gems.

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anubite a écrit :

Well, int isn't a big problem for me. I have the amulet (level 20 requirement) that adds 100 to all 3 stats. Mana may become an issue, but perhaps not if I use all mana gear, or grab blood magic.

If I decide to do a minion build with open beta, I might go Marauder. Would easier to grab some int that way. Was thinking of doing 2h Staff + resolute strike + blood magic + supported minion gems.

There is a +100 stats amulet? It's unique I take it. Nice!

That sounds like fun. Blood magic is a great idea for dealing with the mana requirement for minions, especially with the kind of regen marauders can get. I'd add a rejuv totem for you and minions, or the life rejuv aura.