EZ One Bar Summoner
Author: Mahj
This build is meant to be easy to play, yet still powerful. It utilizes two key Gamechanger nodes: Pacifist and Conjurer, which both provide substantial cooldown reduction at the cost of spell damage. Conjurer also provides a big boost to summon damage, which is one of the main stats we're looking to stack in this build. By utilizing these two nodes, you'll be able to summon a horde of Zombies, Wolves, and Skeletons to trash your enemies safely. Regardless, this build has a strong suit of defenses, which make this a fantastic beginner build!
Put one point into Chilling Touch to help with damage. You can weave the spell in between your basic attacks. Levels 1-10 shouldn't be too difficult, you can reach level 15-20 with ease just by following the Prelude (Overworld Chapter) in the quest book (Hotkey: P).
- Summons (Zombies, Wolves, Skeletons)
- Generating Necrotic Tether Stacks
- A Large Pool of Health
- Mana Battery and Flat Damage Reduction
You will want to allocate your points into Vitality:Intelligence:Wisdom in a 4:1:1 ratio. If you feel like you have enough mana sustain, you can opt for more Vitality.
You will want primarily:
- Summon Damage
- Cooldown Reduction
- Health
And to a lesser extent:
- Mana
- Mana Regeneration
- Faster Cast Rate
- Increased Duration
- Primary: Unholy
- Secondary: Hunting
You want to specialize in the Unholy tree for the summon synergies it boasts. Start with a single point in Chilling Touch to get you going till level 10. At Unholy mastery 5, you will want to unlock Summon Zombies. Just pump points into Summon Zombie until you hit level 10, where you can unlock the Hunting tree and then Summon Hunting Wolf (at level 15). Once you can, put a single point into Chilling Touch's synergy, Necromancer's Hex. Then, at level 25, unlock Blood Tether and aim to max it and its passive effect level to max. This spell is really your only spammable and is extremely powerful. It will provide you with substantial summon damage (which affects all your summons) and health regeneration. At max level, it gives you 5 stacks of Necrotic Tether, which has a max of 20 stacks!
Next, you'll want to unlock Summon Skeletal Army > Minion Mastery > Frost Implants/Cripple Effect in that order. You should aim to max Summon Zombies > Minion Mastery > Summon Skeletal Army > Frost Implants/Cripple Effect > Hunting Wolf in that order.
- We start with the left side instead of the top since it gives us a cleaner path towards our build-around nodes. There are also many relevant nodes along the path.
- Your primary nodes of focus are Summon Damage nodes and Cooldown Reduction nodes!
- On the way up, you must take Magical Life. Because of how Unholy spell costs work, having 0 magic shield is better than having 1. You will be able to use just your health pool to cast your spells (also cloth armor will provide huge boosts to health, if you decide to wear them).
- Eventually, you can get Stout Defender and Mana Battery to help with defenses. Only take Mana Battery if you can sustain your mana pool. Stout Defender is great because we don't care about armor, dodge, or magic shield. Even if you're not using a shield, it's 10% damage reduction!
- Other nodes of note are Increased Duration, Mana, Health, and Faster Cast Rate nodes. You can also consider getting Ruthless, if you ever decide to utilize Summon Hunting Wolf's synergy, Sharpened Fangs in conjunction with Cripple, which are both DoTs.
- Any uniques, runewords, or set bonuses that provide cooldown reduction and summon damage are what you're looking for.
- Equipment with boosts to health, mana, and resistances are also key.
This build is extremely powerful all the way until end game. You could utilize the DoT synergies between Unholy and Hunting and also grab some easy to reach DoT nodes too.