Level 95 Vaal Summon Skeletons Necromancer^3.25

Notes

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ZOOMANCER FOR ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. Guide & Build Overview
	- Who is this guide for
	- Build Strengths
	- Build Weaknesses 
2. Levelling Checklist & Notes
	- Act 1 through 10
	- Early Maps Progression
3. Passive Trees 
4. Skill Gems
5. Items
6. Scaling the build
7. Pantheon & Bandits
8. Atlas Strategies
9. FAQ
	- How to get 4 max spectres (level 25 Raise Spectre)
	- Which Spectres to use
	- How does Descecrate work
	- Animate Guardian
	- Map modifiers to avoid
	- SSF Viable
	- HC Viable
	- T17 Viable
	- Ubers Viable
10. A bit about the build creator + where to ask questions

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GUIDE & BUILD OVERVIEW
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WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR
This guide has been designed with an absolute Path of Exile beginner in mind - if you never played Path of Exile before, you should be able to follow this guide.
To make this build simple & accessible, we are not utilising any complicated/difficult to scale mechanics (e.g. no animated guardian, no spell suppression, using relatively simple spectres only).
While this build aims to be 'simple' that does not mean it's weak or for beginners only, with enough investment and scaling this build is capable of clearing T17 maps and 'The Feared'.

ZOOMANCER STRENGTHS:
- Easy, safe & simple to play
- Very good bosser (basically phases most bosses other than Ubers)
- Jack of all Trades (good at most mechanics/atlas strategies)
- Great leaguestarter
- Has a very nice & steady progression curve - you can gradually invest more & more into this build to scale it over time, there are no major brick walls in progression

ZOOMANCER WEAKNESSES:
- Not the fastest mapper out there (average)
- Requires 'The Covenant' unique armor (20 chaos~ cost usually) to truly come online which can be a barrier for brand new players at the start
- Can have a rough time with Act 1 campaign bosses
- Very difficult to scale it enough to clear Uber Bosses
- Minion builds aren't for everyone - some players can find them boring 

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LEVELING CHECKLIST &  NOTES
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Few notes before starting:
- If you are a brand new player please first read about socket & links system in PoE here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Item_socket#Links
- Act 1 is usally the 'hardest' part of Zoomancer leveling (mostly Act 1 bosses: Brutus and Merveil can be tricky). Once you get a few levels and passive points (usually by Act 2), campaign becomes a breeze.
- Always complete Trials of Ascendency in zones where they are. Read up more about Trials & Ascendency/Labrynith here: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Trial_of_Ascendancy
- Throughout the campaign you should enter 'Vaal Side Areas' and try to get a 'Vaal Summon Skeletons' from the Vessel at the end (use it when you get it): https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Vaal_side_area
- Throughout the campaign look for a calling wand/helmet/bone spirit shield with '+1 to level of all minion skill gems'. These will be your best in slot items when you find them, but they're rare.
- Use the 'Skills' tab for an overview of what skill gems to use at which part of the campaign, if it's not clear from the notes below.

ACT 1:
- Constantly be on the lookout for 3-linked items (ideally Blue/Blue/Blue and Blue/Blue/Green), those will be very useful (you can check vendors Nessa/Tarkleigh every level to see if they are selling any 3-linked items)
- Level 2 upon reaching Lioneye's Watch:
	- take 'Rolling Magma' gem as quest reward from Tarkleigh. Link it with Arcane Surge (Remove Fireball). Use Rolling Magma for the next few levels.
	- purchase 'Raise Zombie' from Nessa. Always make sure you have maximum number of Zombies summoned.
- Level 4~ (after killing Hailrake in The Tidal Island):
	- take 'Quicksilver' Flask as reward from Nessa.
	- take 'Chance to Poison' gem as quest reward from Nessa. Link it with Raise Zombie.
- Level 6~ upon reaching 'The Submerged Passage', pick up the waypoint and go back to town:
	- take 'Summon Raging Spirit' gem as quest reward from Tarkleigh. Always summon maximum number of Summon Raging Spirits (SRS).
	- take 'Frostblink' gem as quest reward from Tarkleigh. Use it to cross over unpassable terrain.
	- purchase 'Shield Charge' from Nessa and use it as your main movement skill (requires having a shield equipped)
	- purchase 'Summon Phantasm Support' from Nessa, link it with Summon Raging Spirit
	- Now that you have Summon Raging Spirit, you can drop Rolling Magma and just use Summon Raging Spirit as your main damaging ability
- Level 9~ upon reaching 'The Prison', pick up the waypoint near the entrance and go back to town:
	- take 'Infernal Legion Support' gem as quest reward from Nessa and link it with Summon Raging Spirit (replacing Summon Phantasms gem to make room for it)
	- purchase two 'Minion Damage Support' gems from Nessa. Link them with Raise Zombie and Summon Raging Spirit (if you have links).
- Important: You will soon face Brutus, the first difficult boss of PoE. It is important to have a 3-link Summon Raging Spirit setup for Brutus otherwise it will be a challenging battle.
	- If you have a 3-linked (3x blue) item, use: Summon Raging Spirit - Infernal Legion Support - Minion Damage Support
	- If you have a 3-linked (2x blue 1x green) item, use: Summon Raging Spirit - Infernal Legion Support - Chance to Poison Support
	- If you don't have either, make sure to check Vendors to see if they sell one. Otherwise just go with Summon Raging Spirit - Infernal Legion Support
- Level 10 (after killing Brutus):
	- take 'Summon Skeletons' gem as quest reward from Tarkleigh. Slot it in for now and try to summon Skeletons up to the limit (SRS is still the main damage ability at this point).
	- purchase 'Clarity' aura gem from Nessa and activate it.
- Level 12 take 'Flesh Offering' gem as quest reward from Nessa. Try to use it where possible to boost your minions but not very important at this stage.

ACT 2:
- Choose 'Kill' for all Bandit options when prompted throughout Act 2.
- Level 16~ take 'Arctic Armour' gem as quest reward from Gruest. Activate it.
- Purchase 'Tempest Shield' from Yeena. Activate it.
- Level 18~ take 'Minion Speed' gem as quest reward from Yeena, but we are not likely to have links to use it.
- Purchase 'Melee Physical Damage' from Yeena. Link it with Summon Skeletons.

ACT 3:
- Level 28~ take 'Purity of Elements' gem as quest reward from Maramoa. Activate it. Remove Arctic Armour/Temptest Shield. 
- Level 30~ take 'Raise Spectre' gem as quest reward from Maramoa. Use it. At this point don't worry too much about the Spectre type, just make sure to always have maximum number summoned.
- Level 31~ complete optional quest in The Library (accessible from The Imperial Gardens) to be able to buy all gems from NPC Siosa (will be useful later).
- Level 33~ complete The Lord's Labrynith and choose Necromancer ascendency. Choose Commander of Darkness ascendency passive. The campaign should now become very easy.

ACT 4:
In act 4, 4-link items are beginning to drop more commonly. Try to get those for your chest/gloves/helmet/boots with the right socket colours (mostly blue with some red/green).
For skill setups, from now you should simply refer to the 'Skills' tab, 'Skill set: Act 4-10', I will no longer be listing every single support gem to use here as it will get too complicated.
The skills in the 'Skills' tab are sorted in the order of importance (to priotise links), from top to bottom.
Note about level requirements/when gems become available:
- 'Chaos Golem' is available from level 34 (reward from Oyun).
- 'Multistrike' becomes available at level 38 (reward from Dialla), until then you should use 'Melee Splash' with Zombies/Skeletons. 
- 'Immortal Call' will only become available for a Witch in Act 6. (Make sure to not level Cast When Damage Taken above level 1 and Immortal Call above level 3)

ACT 5:
Nothing specific to add here. Continue trying to fill your 4-link setups.

ACT 6:
Complete the optional quest for Lilly at the start of the act. Afterwards, she will be selling all skill gems in the game, so whenever you are missing some go to her (get Immortal Call now).

ACT 7:
'Convening Wand' base type should start dropping regularly now, keep your eyes out for it and try to do some basic craft on it (e.g. for more % minion damage with orb of alteration rolling)

ACT 8:
Complete Cruel Labyrinth around level 55.

ACT 9:
Make sure to grab the 'Trigger a Socketed Spell' craft recipe in 'The Refinery' area. You need to click a sewer grate in this level to access a new level with this recipe.
We will need this craft after the campaign.

ACT 10:
Complete Mericless Labyrinth around level 66. I usually do it just before facing Kitava (final campaign boss) to get that extra boost.

EARLY MAPS:
Focus on the following when you reach maps:
- Use crafting bench in hideout to craft 'Trigger a Socketed Spell...' on your wand and socket Desecrate+Flesh Offering in that wand
- I usually drop Summon Raging Spirit around here as I try to fill out items with sockets/links as in the 'Final Endgame' skills setup, but you can keep SRS for the first few maps if it helps
- If you haven't found 'Vaal Summon Skeletons' during levelling, then buy it now or farm by putting Sacrifice Fragments into your map device to open a random vaal side area
- Start getting some proper spectres. In early maps I just grab 2x Carnage Chieftain, those can be found in Act 2 (The Old Fields) or Act 7 (The Ashen Fields)
(For more info on Spectres, how they work and which spectres we should use in Endgame, refer to the Spectres sections in FAQ)
- Try to complete 'Uber Lab' as early as possible (level 75~), Unholy Might adds a ton of damage
- Focus on purchasing 'The Covenant' armour as it's vital to this build, until you get it you might feel a bit weak in maps. The item is usually around 10-20 chaos so make sure to save up for it/sell some other currency
- After picking up The Covenant, focus on getting the three Cluster Jewels the build will need to feel good (especially the Medium one helps tremendously with Minion survivability)

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PASSIVE TREES
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Passive levelling trees are pretty self-explanatory in this build, nothing too complicated so just follow them. 
At level 64 we start pathing towards all the jewel and cluster jewel sockets.
However, if you have no currency and can't afford any Jewels at this point (pretty likely), you can consider picking up other notables in your tree and later respec to jewel sockets once you can afford them.
Close notables to consider picking up instead of Jewels:
- Combat Stamina
- Constitution
- Enduring Bond
- Indomitable Army

However, do keep in mind that jewels (especially cluster jewels) are very strong & important to this build so do not put off getting them for too long.

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SKILL GEMS
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In this section I will only talk about skill gems that can be changed if needed or require some more information/clarification to get the most of them.
Otherwise, if a skill gem is not listed here, it's self-explanatory how it's used and you should just refer to the 'Final Endgame' Skills setup for gems/links.

CHAOS GOLEM + FEEDING FRENZY
We have Chaos Golem separate from the Raise Spectre setup so that we can have both the 'Feeding Frenzy' buff (applied by Chaos Golem)
and to also have 'Summon Phantasms' by Spectres/Holy Relic. Other builds usually use Feeding Frenzy with Animate Guardian but we don't use it.
Additionally, having it setup the way we currently do, allows us to have a 3B1R socket colour in an armour base, which is much easier/cheaper to get than 4x blue.

VITALITY/CLARITY
Those gems reserve more mana the higher level they are.
Ideally you want Vitality at level 20 and Clarity as high as possible (usually 5~) while still having enough mana to cast all your spells.
You need to experiment with it and find your ideal gem levels based on your mana pool/mana regen.
If Vitality needs to stay at level 17-18-19 that's fine.

HOLY RELIC
To get the regen buff from Holy Relic we need to hit an enemy with Shield Charge every few seconds.

FLESH AND STONE
I usually stay in Sand Stance as I normally find that damage of the build is fine and I prefer the extra survivability.

FROSTBLINK
This gem is mostly to help traverse terrain and get you out of enemy attacks quickly as it has very fast cast speed.
You should normally use Shield Charge for movement and save Frostblink for when it's needed.

CONVOCATION
We use this ability to heal our minions but also to relocate them when we want them to prioritise a particular enemy.
e.g. you can frostblink on top of a boss, use convocation and then run away. Your minions will now be near & focusing the boss.

DESPAIR
Despair Curse is a huge DPS increase and you should always make sure to cast it on Rare+ enemies.

AURAS
To fit all the auras as we have them, in the endgame, you will need to have:
- 12% increased mana reservation Mana Mastery allocated in tree (top right)
- 9% increased mana reservation efficiency implicit from Exarch/Eater influence in your helmet

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ITEMS
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Below, when I refer to Endgame Crafting ilvl, that is the minimum ilvl the item needs to be to be able to roll all the ideal stats if we want to craft ourselves.
You can of course also simply buy the items from other players.
For best affixes/stats, please refer to the Items section 'Final Endgame'.

Weapon:
Base: Convoking Wand
Endgame Crafting ilvl: 84

Shield:
Base: Fossilised Spirit Shield
Endgame Crafting ilvl: 84

Helmet:
Endgame Base: Giantslayer Helmet (Early: Any base that helps fit/link gems)
Endgame Crafting ilvl: 84

Body Armour:
'The Covenant' unique

Gloves: 
Endgame Base: Leviathan Gauntlets (Early: Any base that helps fit/link gems)
Endgame Crafting ilvl: 84
(The Spell Supresses Implicit from Exarch/Eater Influence is not really necessary, as we do not run a suppress build, but there's nothing else there really useful)

Boots: 
Endgame Base: Leviathan Greaves (Early: Any base that helps fit/link gems)
Endgame Crafting ilvl: 84

Amulet:
'The Jinxed Juju' / 'Ashes of the Stars' uniques
Annoint: Death Attunement (Clear/Crimson/Silver Oils)

Rings:
Base: Bone Ring
Endgame Crafting ilvl: 84 (if you want any elemental resistances) or 81 (if you only care about minion modifiers)

Belt:
Darkness Enthroned unique (aim for 95%+ increased effect to help us reach that 100% chance to poison for minions)

Jewels:
2x Unique: Amanamu's Gaze, Watcher's Eye (Watcher's Eye is a very endgame item that can be replaced with a regular Rare Ghastly Eye Jewel until then)
4x Rare: Ghastly Eye Jewels ilvl 84+
Focus on +life, +%chance to poison (try to get 100% with Darkness Enthroned), +chaos damage

Cluster Jewels:
Large:
12 passives (minion damage)
35% inc effect (ilvl 84)
%chaos resistance

Medium:
4 passives
Blessed Rebirth + Life From Death passives. Those help us tremendously with minion survivability, very important.

Small:
2 passives (%inc armor)
Enduring Composure passive (ilvl68). This is our source of Enduring Chagres, also very important for (our) survivability.

Flasks:
Eternal Life Flask
Rumi's Concoction
Jade Flask
Basalt Flask
Quicksilver Flask

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SCALING THE BUILD
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There are many ways to scale the build with a lot of investment:
- Perfect Affix Items
- Amazing Watcher's Eye (2x Determination + 1x Purity of Elements effects most likely, can try others)
- You can slot in Progenesis in place of Eternal Flask (but then you need a 'Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you' Jewel corruption)
- Get all Awakened Gems (perhaps skip awakened multistrike as its crazy expensive and not *so* strong for this build)
- Use high budget 'Animate Guardian' (more on this in FAQ section on Animate Guardian)
- Transition into Spell Suppression at the cost of some Armour/life nodes

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PANTHEON & BANDITS
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MAJOR:
Lunaris (mostly for projectiles stuff)

MINOR:
Gruthkul (survivability)

Bandits:
Kill all (unless you need Elemental Resistance in which case Help Alira, but then add 1 level to each passive tree)

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ATLAS STRATEGIES
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Zoomancer is pretty good at basically all content/Atlas strategies.
I'd maybe avoid extremely crazy juiced content (e.g. Delirium+Beyond+Harvest) as at the very high end enemy monsters can end up killing our minions/Spectres which is a bit of a pain.
But all 'regular' strategies/content can be ran with Zoomancer just fine.

Personally I'm running Ultimatum + Ritual + Blight.

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FAQ
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How to get 4 max spectres (level 25 Raise Spectre)
To have 4 max spectres you need to have amulet annoint + level 25 Raise Spectre gem.
Assuming you have level 21 spectre gem (buy one if you dont), the other possible sources of Raise Spectre gem levels are:
+2 levels to minions gems from Helmet
+1 level to minion gems from shield
+1 level to minion gems from weapon
+1 level to intelligence gems from weapon
+1 level to all gems from Ashes of the Stars

Usually +2 from helmet/+1 from shield/+1 from weapon is the easiest way to get to level 25 Raise Spectre.

Which Spectres to use
I usually go for following (relatively simple to get) setup:
1x Perfect Guardian Turtle (most important) - Gives physical damage reduction and gives us Determination aura. Found in Ritual encounters or bought on trade.
1x Arena Master - Buffs Attack Speed/Cast Speed/Damage/Movement Speed. Can be found in Drox Influenced Maps (T14-T16). They come out of the Drox doors. Look for them by holding 'A' key to highlight corpses.
2x Carnage Chieftain - Grants Frenzy Charges, can be found in Act 2 (The Old Fields) or Act 7 (The Ashen Fields). Look for them by holding 'A' key to highlight corpses.

Usually, you can join global chat (/global 666) and ask other friendly Summoner players to spawn some corpses for you from their hideouts for you to raise.

P.S. There are plenty of good Spectres to use and it's often a disputed topic. You can do some research yourself about Spectres in PoE and which you would like to try/use. My list is not necessarily 100% best in all cases.

How does Descecrate work
When you raise a spectre, it's added to a saved pool of corpses that are randomly selected when you cast descecrate (+ monsters from current zone). 
Therefore when you have raised spectres at least once, when they die, you should go to your hideout and cast descecrate on the floor and can easily re-raise your spectres again.
This will happen a few times during early maps, but once you hit endgame your spectres should be tanky enough to basically never die.

Animate Guardian
We do not use AG in this guide by default as I believe it's a bit too complicated for beginners.
However, if you have played summoners before you can certainly use AG and it will make the build better overall.
To do so, remove one of your bone rings and add a 'Hungry Loop' unique ring. Feed it 4 support gems (Minion Life/Meat Shield/Elemental Army/Feeding Frenzy) (then you can remove feeding frenzy from Chaos Golem and free up a socket for something else).
For which items to then feed to the AG I suggest looking at other content creators tips (e.g. GhazzyTV) as I don't like using AG myself so don't feel I should be advising.

Map modifiers to avoid
Reduced Recovery of life/mana
Cannot Leech from Monsters
Reduced max res

SSF Viable
Yes. Biggest pain point is getting The Covenant, depends how lucky you are.

HC Viable
Yes, one of the better builds for Hardcore actually, you can stay very safe behind your minions.

T17 Viable
Yes, I've cleared every single T17 map and killed each boss (50-100 div~ investment needed).

Ubers Viable
Eh, not really. Even with high investment we are too squishy to tank any serious Uber hits. I think it's probably possible with perfect play and some specific build changes but definitely very difficult and wouldn't really recommend it.

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A BIT ABOUT THE GUIDE CREATOR
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Hey! Thanks for checking out the guide!

I've been playing PoE since 2016~ and absolutely love the game.

I also have a YouTube channel and a fansite for another video game, Tibia, a 25 year old MMORPG.
There I've been making guides and helping beginner players for many, many years.

You can check out my YouTube channel here (Path of Exile + Tibia videos):
https://www.youtube.com/@Kusnierr

Feel free to ask any questions about the guide on my youtube or Discord server:
https://discord.gg/n6jbK8TZNZ

~Kusnier