(Outdated) The Toolbox Necromancer (Witch)
Submitted by Dracovitch on November 16, 2013 - 12:54PM CST
Page Views: 14157
Last Updated: November 16, 2013 - 3:29PM CST
Description
An Elemental Equilibrium Summoner build that utilizes minions, totems, and curses to control the battlefield.Suggested Leagues: Standard, Domination
Passive Skills
Each link will open in a new tab in your browser.Gems
Totems
Spark
Spell Totem
Fork
Lightning Penetration
Faster Casting
Reduced Mana
Skeletons
Summon Skeletons
Faster Casting
Minion Damage
Added Fire Damage
Spectres
Raise Spectre
Minion Life
Minion Damage
Added Chaos Damage
Zombies
Raise Zombie
Minion Life
Minion Damage
Added Cold Damage
Curses
Enfeeble
Temporal Chains
Reduced Mana
Auras
Determination
Purity of Elements
Reduced Mana
Flasks
Flask Set 1
Mana Flask
Mana Flask
Mana Flask
Quicksilver Flask
Quicksilver Flask
Bandits
Kill all the bandits in Normal Difficulty - Rewards 1 Passive Skill PointHelp Alira in Cruel Difficulty - Rewards +4% to Cast SpeedKill all the bandits in Merciless Difficulty - Rewards 1 Passive Skill PointGear
Each piece of your gear should increase one or more of the following:Energy Shield
Cast Speed
Minion Stats
Elemental Resistances
Maximum Mana
Mana Regeneration.
Your gear should generally have four linked slots (even for those with only three gems) for maximum effectiveness, with the totems in a 6L chest. If you are having trouble finding a chest with more than four linked slots, you can remove the Lightning Penetration and Reduced Mana support gems with little negative impact.
There are some uniques to try and shoot for, which are listed below. Note that these are not required, but can make the game more interesting.
Sidhebreath: An amulet that increase cold resistance, mana regeneration, and minion stats. It has no level requirement and makes early game a bit more fun. (For Magic Find gear, a Gold Amulet with the highest Increase Rarity is recommended)
Perandus Blazon: An all around decent belt with fire resistance and a plus to item quantity, making it good for both normal and MF gear.
Doedre's Damning: This requires an extra curse to be added to the above build, making your curs gear require four links, but it can be worth it. I suggest Elemental Weakness as the additional 3rd curse due to the nature of the build. Do keep in mind that with a third curse, you will have to lose an aura. (For MF gear, two Andvarius will greatly increase your finds , combining it with the Aurumvorax sword will help cancel out the negative effects.
Shavronne's Wrappings: If you manage to grab this amazing chest piece, you can take the five points out of CI and its off shooting tree and put them into something else, your choice really.
Bones of Ullr: This is probably the one unique I fully recommend getting for the build as soon as possible. The increase to zombies and spectres is what make it so great, however the movement speed and mana increase are nothing to scoff at.
Aursieze: These gloves are really only for the MF gear, and if you'd rather have more item quantity I suggest Sadima's Touch.
Arsenath's Mark: I like this circlet for the increase casting speed and mana regeneration rate. I'm sure there are some level 60-80 rares that can blow it out of the water though.
Matua Tapuna: The defacto minion shield, makes for a great place to stuff your skeleton gems.
Mon'tregul's Grasp: Only use this if you REALLY like your zombies, and have all the + to zombie nodes, and probably the Bones of Ullr as well. (For MF gear, use Aurumvorax in combination with two Andvarius rings.)
Guide
This build was designed for single player use in softcore leagues, however I have seen various similar builds used in hardcore leagues. It does make for awesome support in groups, so don't be afraid to grab some friends if you know someone in need of help.The key to this build is to keep the elemental damage flowing, always having your totems up with skeletons and/or zombies to back them up. With all three elemental damage types in constant flux during fights, you will get the full benefit of EE and produce solid DPS at all times. Chaos Inoculation will stop most Chaos based enemies in their tracks, but it does mean you need to be careful and stack resistances. Good maneuverability is important with this build, as there will be enemies and bosses that decide to target you over your minions, and those harrowing situation where you find you have little to no minions for whatever reason. There's no shame in running away if your army gets blasted to dust. This build does require a bit of management despite never dealing damage yourself.
Minions
The main source of DPS for this build. All three minion types should be running minion damage for maximum output. From there you can choose between minion life and minion resistances (I prefer life since I run with Purity of Elements). You should be summoning skeletons on top of enemies, and keeping them at max near constantly. Because of this minion life/resistance gems aren't as useful on them. Skeletons also get fire damage for extra DPS with EE. Zombies and spectres are a bit different. Given that they stick around you should make sure to always have maximum zombies/spectres after each fight, generally targeting your preferred spectre enemies before going crazy with zombies. I prefer to always grab ranged spectres like archers, spellcasters, etc. Voidbearers are also tons of fun to use. Spectres get added Chaos damage simply because I felt like they deserved an added damage type and chaos was open. Zombies are much easier to handle since they require little motivation to go off and kill things or defend you, they also get cold damage for extra DPS with EE.
Totems
The other main DPS source, their sole purpose is to proc EE with lots of lightning damage form spark. Much like the skeletons, these will be summoned on demand as needed, so life and resistance mods are not needed unless you really feel like leaving them alone. I prefer setting one at each end of the battlefield to effectively cover the whole area with your minions doing the dirty work in the middle.
Curses
Curses mean more support for your summons, plain and simple... well ok they also mean you get to do something other then summon minions to do your work for you. I like to use the combo Enfeeble + Temporal chains to really take a chunk out of their DPS. However with EE as a main DPS component, using Elemental Weakness is also an incredibly useful curse. If you want all three, try to grab the unique ring "Doedre's Damning." Please bear in mind that if you do decide to go for three curses, you will have to remove one of your two auras.
Auras
Purity of Elements to increase the resistances of you and your minions. Determination an increase the armor of your minions, or you can use Discipline to give them an energy shield while buffing your own. During early game, Clarity can come in handy during long fights.