Path of Exile 2
Path of Exile 2

Minions & Summoner Builds

Path of Exile 2 summoner builds rely on raising an army. This guide details creating a powerful summoner through early game progression and key itemization str.

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Minions & Summoner Builds

Summoner builds in Path of Exile 2 offer a unique playstyle centered around raising an army of loyal minions to fight by your side. This guide will walk you through the essential steps to create a powerful summoner, focusing on early game progression and key itemization.

Early Game Summoner Strategy (Acts 1-3)

Starting as a Witch, you'll have immediate access to foundational minion skills. The goal in the early acts is to establish a strong minion base and ensure their survival while you support them from a safe distance.

Skill Gem Acquisition & Linking

  • Act 1: The Coast & Lioneye's Watch
    • Upon reaching Lioneye's Watch, purchase Summon Skeletons from Nessa. This will be your primary offensive minion skill.
    • Also acquire Raise Zombie from Nessa. While not as aggressive as Skeletons, Zombies provide a durable frontline.
    • Link Summon Skeletons with Minion Damage Support (also from Nessa after completing "Mercy Mission"). This is a crucial damage boost.
    • Link Raise Zombie with Minion Life Support (from Nessa after "The Siren's Cadence") to enhance their tankiness.
  • Act 2: The Forest Encampment
    • After completing "Intruders in Black," Helena will offer Summon Holy Relic. This minion provides an aura that heals your other minions and deals damage to nearby enemies. Link it with Generosity Support (from Yeena after "Sharp and Gloomy") to amplify its aura effect.
    • Consider picking up Summon Carrion Golem from Yeena after "A Fixture of Fate." Golems provide powerful buffs to your other minions. Link it with Feeding Frenzy Support (from Yeena after "The Great White Beast") to make it more aggressive and grant your other minions a damage bonus.
  • Act 3: The Sarn Encampment
    • Upon reaching Sarn, purchase Desecrate from Clarissa. This skill creates corpses, which are essential for quickly raising Zombies or Skeletons if they fall in combat.
    • Acquire Flesh Offering from Clarissa. This spell consumes nearby corpses to grant your minions a temporary boost to attack speed and movement speed. Use it strategically during boss fights or tough encounters.

Passive Tree Progression

Prioritize minion-specific nodes on the passive tree. As a Witch, you'll naturally gravitate towards the Necromancer ascendancy. Key early nodes include:

  • Minion Instability: (Near the Witch starting area) Causes your minions to explode on death, dealing fire damage. Great for clearing packs.
  • Death Attunement: (Further into the Necromancer tree) Grants additional maximum summoned Zombies and Skeletons, significantly increasing your army size.
  • Lord of the Undead: (Necromancer tree) Provides increased minion life and damage.
  • Focus on increasing your maximum life and energy shield for survivability, as you'll be relying on your minions to take the hits.

Itemization & Gear

Look for gear with the following stats:

  • Minion Damage: The most crucial stat for increasing your minions' offensive power.
  • Minion Life: Improves their survivability, especially for Zombies.
  • Minion Attack/Cast Speed: Increases their damage output.
  • Resistances: Ensure your own elemental resistances are capped (75%) to avoid being one-shot.
  • Life/Energy Shield: Boost your own defensive layers.

Early Unique Items to Watch For:

  • Wand of the Unraveling: A common early-game wand that often rolls with minion damage or minion life modifiers. Found as a random drop in Act 1 or 2.
  • Emberwake: While not directly minion-focused, this ring can be useful for igniting enemies, providing additional damage. Drops from various sources in Act 2 and beyond.

Mid-Game Optimization (Acts 4-7)

As you progress, you'll refine your minion army and introduce more specialized support. The focus shifts to scaling your minions' damage and ensuring their longevity against tougher enemies.

Advanced Skill Gem Setups

  • Auras:
    • Hatred: Grants your minions bonus cold damage. Link with Generosity Support to amplify its effect on minions.
    • Purity of Elements: Provides elemental resistances to you and your minions, crucial for survival in later acts.
  • Curses:
    • Despair: Applies a debuff that increases chaos damage taken and reduces chaos resistance. Excellent for boosting minion damage if you have chaos-based minions or damage.
    • Temporal Chains: Slows enemies, making it easier for your minions to hit them and reducing incoming damage.
  • Utility Minions:
    • Spectres: After completing "The Eternal Nightmare" in Act 4, you can raise Spectres from specific monster corpses. Look for Spectres that provide powerful buffs or debuffs, such as those that cast curses or provide defensive auras. Experiment with different monster types to find what suits your build.
    • Animate Guardian: This minion equips items you provide, granting their stats to it. A powerful late-game option, but requires careful item selection to avoid losing valuable gear.

Ascendancy Choices

As a Witch, the Necromancer ascendancy is almost universally the best choice for summoners. Key ascendancy nodes include:

  • Mistress of Sacrifice: Grants powerful bonuses to you and your minions when you use Offerings.
  • Commander of Darkness: Provides increased attack and cast speed, and elemental resistances to you and your minions.
  • Bone Barrier: A defensive skill that grants a temporary shield to you and your minions.

Advanced Itemization

  • Unique Weapons:
    • Severed in Sleep: A powerful wand that grants significant minion damage and chaos damage. Drops from various sources in Act 6 and beyond.
    • Queen's Decree / Queen's Escape: These swords provide additional maximum Skeletons and other minion bonuses. Excellent for Skeleton-focused builds.
  • Body Armour:
    • Vis Mortis: A fantastic body armour for chaos minion builds, granting additional maximum Spectres and increased minion chaos damage.
    • Bones of Ullr: Boots that grant additional maximum Zombies and Spectres, along with movement speed.
  • Jewels: Look for jewels with "Minion Damage," "Minion Life," and "Minion Attack/Cast Speed" modifiers. Unique jewels like Dead Reckoning (converts Skeletons to Mages) or From Dust (grants additional Skeletons) can drastically alter your playstyle.

General Summoner Tips

  • Minion Positioning: Your minions will generally engage enemies first. Use movement skills like Flame Dash or Dash to reposition yourself safely behind your army.
  • Corpse Management: Always have Desecrate on hand to generate corpses for quick minion summoning or to fuel Flesh Offering.
  • Flasks: Prioritize life flasks for your own survival. Utility flasks like Quicksilver Flask for movement speed or Granite Flask for additional armor can be beneficial.
  • Auras & Buffs: Keep your auras active and use Offerings strategically to maximize your minions' effectiveness.
  • Resistances: Always prioritize capping your own elemental resistances. Dead summoners summon no minions.