Path of Exile

Behemoth

Trakanon Raider
109
88
Depends. Different pets have different AI levels. Spectres are arguably the "smartest" pet class. Solar Guards will fucking play the game for you. I've run a Spectre Necro with every league except this last one. They're amazing. Convocation gets reduced by Necro ascendancy and with the quality CDR on it now, it's pretty manageable. You can do it like every 4.4 seconds or something without CDR on gear or something. With the new enchant changes you could get Convo Cooldown reduction on your Bone Helmet too.

Endless Hunger unique jewel + spectres make mapping/delving too easy. They also keep adding little buffs to minions that spectres benefit from such as just a shit ton more damage with Spiritual Aid nodes and the Soulwrest staff is pretty nice if you're not going tanky. I ran a Soulwrest for lulzy clear speed and could clear an entire T14+ map in less than 2 minutes, boss included. When I started delving I wanted to get tankier so I just got a shield and a Sai I Bound fossil crafted with +80% minion damage on it. I got to something like 65/65 block chance and 2 curses on my necro with 6500hp and MoM.

Golems are good dmg potential, but retarded. Skeletons are the same. Zombies are mostly for meatshields. SRS are heat seeking missiles so they're better than the others, but they can't take hits for you. Spectres are truly in the sweet spot for summoners if you want an army. And you can generally run with multiple zombies/skeletons to accompany your 3-4 Specs.


Was thinking of playing an ice golemancer next league. Maybe instead I’ll do the solars. Just don’t want the pain in the ass to resummon them if I die. Which is often because I derp this game.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
17,181
8,195
Looks insanely strong, but fucking miserable to use and not nearly enough skill buttons?

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Because song twisting is what everyone remembers fondly from their EQ Bard.:emoji_rolling_eyes:
 
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dizzie

Triggered Happy
2,509
3,940
Those boots look awful, I hate the whole recast buff stuff, debuffing by monsters too (as in them stripping your casted buffs)- that's just lazy development.

Not a fan of that style of play.
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,307
2,415
Yeah hoping with this spell revamp they are going to do something about convocation. After using brand recall there really isn't a reason why convocation shouldn't be lowered.

Generally like pet builds though, multiple ways to go and are cheap outside of Golems(which aren't even that expensive compared to maxed out bow/molten strike builds).

They haven't done much to Convocation even though summoners have been asking for buffs forever, I guess they added the 50% cd reduction in necro, but if you're not necro, well tough luck.

Are pet classes AIDS-y to play? Like all these necro builds...

As someone who plays summoners almost every league, I'd say they're fine, but are fairly different than your usual builds. Don't really click something and have it instantly die like most other builds, more like click, wait a bit, then stuff dies. Damage output is good, clear speed is meh/alright depending on the build, gets better if you're the type of player who loots a lot of shit though since you can loot while you summons kill shit. The biggest issues are Convocation cooldown for builds that rely on pets that follow you(not as much of an issue for skeletons/SRS builds for example), lack of buttons to put skills on because you need a fuckton of different shit and lack of gem slots for said different shit. Oh and pet AI sometimes, depends on the pets and the situations, but melee pets will often get stuck in doors and shit since they nerfed the AI calculations overall(monsters also get stuck more as a result, but less lag).

I like them still personally, there's a fair amount of variety in the builds and a bunch of ways to build stuff and they feel decently strong, but generally weaker than whatever fotm OP shit they buffed in that patch. I cleared uber elder with summoner though(as my first char that is) so there isn't really anything you can't do with minions. Other than grandmaster halls, that one is aids with summons. With many things really, fucking place is terrible, luckily the only reason to do it is once to unlock it on the atlas and you can pay someone to clear it for you, or not give a fuck.
 
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Fogel

Mr. Poopybutthole
13,938
56,450
They need to release more info at this rate, no way I want to theory craft 20 fucking builds day before launch.
 

Borzak

Silver Baron of the Realm
26,561
35,334
Big thread on reddit about that yesterday. Never did see a conclusion, other than he will update it and release it a few days after league launch .
 

Penance

Silver Baronet of the Realm
7,801
11,562
They need to release more info at this rate, no way I want to theory craft 20 fucking builds day before launch.

Meh, I think half the fun is crunching before the league starts, and then the start of the league all the experimentation and testing that gets done. Although with so many new spells releasing it'll be a serious crunch this league.
 

zombiewizardhawk

Potato del Grande
10,298
13,450
So... what about those boots is making everyone think they seem like they'd be overpowered or even decent? +2 gem levels on a couple auras isn't exactly impressive. Aurabots have no need to have their mana temporarily unreserved as far as I know.

The only application I can see would be combining them with MoM builds to get a slightly higher EHP for the times when the mana is unreserved?
 

zombiewizardhawk

Potato del Grande
10,298
13,450
Yeah after I thought about it I guess you could cycle a couple that you wouldn't normally be able to reserve, depending on the times. Maybe if they make auras not generally shit then it'd be worth using those and doing it instead of just using a pair of better boots.
 

Warmuth

Molten Core Raider
881
550
I’ve not done any actual group play that isn’t exp leeching so my knowledge is lacking in that respect. Where would strategic twisting of auras be useful? Game moves so fucking quickly that preempting anything seems unlikely and it’s just a matter of gain benefits of auras at random times turning one shots even more one shotty. Maybe prevent a random death here and there from whatever bullshit mechanic due to a random aura being active. Group boss play in a phase or something where a certain resist or burst is needed? I suppose it looks like an extra flask button for boss fights.
 

dizzie

Triggered Happy
2,509
3,940
Yeah i don't see where you'd fit twisting buffs into this game. The group play consists of equip 3-4 quicksilver flasks and run like a pack while you sit in your chair having an epileptic fit from all the explosions on screen.

It's not like you don't get enough buffs with a decent aurabot.

Sounds like a pain in the arse to play.
 

Caliane

Avatar of War Slayer
15,897
12,529
The UI is not really made for it. Nor, is gem slots. There's already a number of temp buffs, aurabots could be running, they don't. Becuase there just isnt enough hotkeys(or ease in cycling through them), or spare room in their builds, for more gems socketed.