Okay, so I did some research and I think I know enough now to outline how this would work; I could be wrong but this is my best guess based on 3-4 hours testing just now.
Assuming you want to use Aaron’s Will, here’s the builds you could choose and why you should (or shouldn’t) use them. There seems not to be an objectively best build as far as this goes, so which one you would choose would come down to lifestyle preferences.
Preface: You’re gonna want to find Sinathia’s Set, Arborial Circuit, Logi’s Hunger, The Fang, Ribbons of Blood and earn Frozen Eyes of Formosus for certain ones of these. I’m also assuming you’re running Transplant on any and all of these builds. On any of these builds, add points to necro passive Mortal Tether until your minions stop dying. How many points you will need in this will vary by build and the other bonuses on your gear. (I use 8.) Also take Arborial Circuit, Ribbons of Blood, Amalgam of Primalists under Bone Golem and Unholy Command under Abom if you’re using him. Look for exalted items with +X to Bone Golem + Minion Armor also.
Bring idols that add a chance to inflict damned or marked for death on any of these builds, as well as elemental minion damage. The amount of bonus damage the 1 x 3 ones for that can give is over 60%, which can greatly increase fire, cold or necrotic damage.
Another neat thing you can try here is using Pebble’s set, though the items are generally bad. There might be some bosses where the extra potions trivialize the fight. It’s only a belt and a relic. I haven’t tested this out enough to know.
- Abom + Dread Shade
This actually doesn’t work, for a lot of reasons. The pain of resummoning abomination isn’t worth it. Especially since Devour (1 button resummon) is slow and you still wouldn’t want to do it in a boss fight. There’s also not an easy way to target Abomination with Dread Shade unless he’s your only minion; casting on face plates does not work current patch. But even if you could, the shade just doesn’t give him enough extra damage to make up for everything you’re losing not slotting a different minion instead of Dread Shade.
- Minion Fire Damage + Death Knights
This is wicked high DPS but the problem of resummoning the skeletons might become an annoyance. Without Aaron’s Will, Warrior Skeletons sadly aren’t any more durable and deal way less damage after specing the Effigees passive, so there’s no real reason to use them over Archers if you’re not using it.
To set up, use Logi’s Hunger. Drop points into necro passive Dark Retribution to get better Vanguards when you resummon Abom. Or without Aaron’s Will, when your Archers inevitably eat it. Go with Pyre Golem and use Tower of Bones to help them get threat. Amalgam of Primalists and Sentinels as well as Hunger will help keep them alive. Spec necro passives Moonlight Pyre, Rite of Undeath and Effigees. Without Aaron’s Will, also give your Archers Fire Arrow. Dragonflame Edict is optional but if you do bring it, you can consider using Ice Arrow instead for some CC, as Archers will have a base chance to ignite when attacking either way.
You’ll want to bring skeletal mages in either case, and I recommend Death Knights because of their synergy with Dragonflame Edict considering how fast they attack and their bonus fire damage in melee. This outstrips most of the benefits of Pyromancers. Even the extra skill points from Logi’s Hunger don’t make up for it.
There are a couple ways to top this build off: Volatile Zombie is the least annoying and has good synergy with Dragonflame Edict. However, if you’re trying to play completely brainless, the far more annoying option is to go Wraiths spec’d Sequel of Avarice and try to get the 5% rarity double-fire Wraith summon. They die less often because they attack at range and you don’t really have to resummon or babysit them at all. If you want to still have something to do, drop a point on Simulacrum under Transplant and 2-3 on the necro passive Mark of Punishment to create blood skeletons that have a chance to bestow Mark of Death on enemies as they get chopped down. Veins of Malice necro passive also helps here.
Infernal Shade can work as your last ability here, but it’s really just personal preference over Volatile Zombie. You can’t control when the final explosions go off, and the AoE damage, while nice, isn’t super relevant with your minions all already putting the beatdown on the enemy in every direction. Use this if you’re bored or opposed to Volatile Zombie.
You can bring Abom instead of Skeletons or your other final skill in this build but the problem is that he doesn’t do fire damage and ends up being very vulnerable because he’s not hitting hard enough to regenerate his health. His damage reflect is decent but it’s not enough to make it helpful in any particular fight. He’s mostly taking up realestate in that scenario. Running 3 full sized golems works about as well by specing skeletons instead.
Going 4 golem + Abom is fun because they fill up the screen and nothing can get agro on you, but there’s no compelling reason to do so. You also don’t get to use Dragonflame from your Dragonflame Edict unless you deliberately resummon your Mages or something, which is much more expensive than Volatile Zombie. This of course, requires specing Skeletons and then putting points into one of the necro passives to max out your maximum skeleton count. (It should take both but for some reason it doesn’t this patch.) I also don’t know if the benefit of Amalgam of Primalists is multiplied by the number of golems you have out, but if it does, it doesn’t seem to matter much.
There is another distinctly interesting thing about doing this, though: You can slot Volatile Zombie on your bar instead of skeletons and use it unspec’d to proc Dragonflame Edict. You could also just throw on Aura of Decay, because why not?
- Minion Cold Damage + Abom
This surprised me. Cryomancer, Deathchill Golem and necro passive Blades of the Forlorn all play nice together. Bring Frozen eyes of Formosus here if you have it. Also want Sinathia’s Set for the extra protection and skill points.
Your final slot will be locked into Wraiths in this scenario since there’s not really another minion or spell that helps you out very much here.
This build causes a lot of CC, which you’d think would help you out more, but I was surprised to notice things still making it to me here and there.
- Physical Damage + Abom
If I had to pick one that I thought was objectively the best though, this would be the one. You’ll bring Sinathia’s Set and The Fang here. In addition to being a lot of damage, The Fang can offset the damage penalty from Twinned Golem a little bit if you choose to use it to have more tanks protecting you, which I personally like. Use necro passive Dark Retribution, Unearthed Arms and Veins of Malice, with extra points going into River of Bones, Blades of the Forlorn and Rite of Undeath. Spec Death Knights under Skeletal Mages. Vanilla golems plus Bladed Fists and Hunger are the way to go here.
The beauty of this is that it’s easy to set up and deals massive damage. Of all the builds, this is the one that hits the hardest and for the least babysitting. Death Knights are self sustaining here because they’re hitting so hard. Ribbons of Blood makes them self sustaining almost by itself. Throw down Transplant to activate Veins of Malice and your minions will frenzy on anything in their way. I was actually shocked by how much damage this did.
Abom can actually hurt things in this build and give armor to your other minions, but you are of course welcome to bring Skeletons instead. Warriors would benefit from The Fang, which means in the long run they should be higher damage. This would require removing Aaron’s Will, of course.
If you decide to run without Abom and just boost your golem number with skeletons, you want to do the trick here where you slot Volatile Zombie unspec’d because in addition to a little bit of damage and CC, this will actually give you access to getting your Vanguards back via Dark Retribution. This is especially helpful here since they benefit from melee / physical bonsues.
Wraiths are the obvious way to go here since they also benefit from melee damage. It’s up to you how to spec them, but I like Twin Spirits because I don’t have to resummon them. The less I have to cast on any given boss fight, the better.
It’s especially tempting to add idols to give a chance to inflict damned and/or marked for death to this build as well, since Death Knights attack so rapidly and the base damage is already high. This would make enemies that heal themselves much less of a hassle to mow down. 1 x 3’s or 3 x 1’s have a chance to mix and match those bonuses with other damage like physical damage, which is especially appealing here.
Hope this was useful and inspires people to try this item out more.
. The Chest is even a hard nerf to certain golem builds. Right now I’ll be happier with a “the Falcon” drop then a “Aaron’s Will”. No idea why it’s rare or what to do with it. Maybe ask Aaron what he had in mind with it 