So… I feel this poison zoo build is reasonably blinged out. But I am stuck around 600c.
I would appreciate any input to help me push further.
I haven’t tried poison minions yet, but I have seen this video of Aaron with poison rogues that is cruising 850c. Maybe seeing what he’s going for can help you?
2 Likes
Thanks! I am aware of his work. I think my build rivals his except he has some perfect life idols and about 800 more life than me.
1 Like
Sweet Build. What do you do with the other 2 skill slots?
I’d prefer the bone curse and the transplant. I don’t really want to be summoning zombies all the time.
Before I add my 2 cents what’s lacking in the build (for you) to make it suck. 600c isn’t bad unless you compare it to like frogs or spark charge or abom what are in thousands of corruption.
Like are you asking for more damage specifically or more ways to survive or are u looking for uber farming.
Generally zoo builds fall flat comparing to others for the general concept of being a specialist what does one thing (take abom) and just do everything to make that one thing good. Opposed to jack of all trades that are spread out and typically more versatile but lacking by comparison. I’m not saying this is your build specifically I’m just generalizing the concept of zoo builds.
1 Like
One quick note you have both skeletons amount increases and skeletons amount reduction nodes. I know there are more damage stats associated with the less skeletons. I’d consider trying either ideally one skeletons for the most out of top node damage mod or try getting max skeletons. And see if more attacks cause more attacks and results in smaller dot dmg but higher stack for more overall damage.
1 Like
in the case of summon skeleton the 80% multiplicative increase in damage + the rounded up advantage (5 big rouge compared to 9 little ones) means you get the same damage from the big rouges… on top of the extra health which makes one shotting deaths less common. This plays out against the test dummy. The dots damage numbers are larger for a big rouge compared to a small one all else being equal.
In the case of summon skelly mages, the math does not work in the individual mages advantage. x5 smaller knights do WAY more damage than a single Big knight. Again this is tested against the dummies. (rouges are less than a 2 to 1 ratio small to big, knights are a 5 to 1 ratio small to big).
Ok just checking/suggesting as I don’t have the build set up personally to test before I suggest.
1 Like
NP this is good info to get out there.
I agree, zoo is an up hill battle. Certainly compared to just hyper buffing Abom.
But even for Zoo, my crit zoo build is WAY better than my dot zoo build. The main advantage is that with crit zoo i don’t need to be in CC range of the enemy with an arua of decay. Poison dot minion build means you have to run a melee range character with ranged character defensive stats.
I reached 1000 but with top gear. However I have never tried poison so my help will be limited.
Cycle x2 is useless, been tested and the special ability does not stack. You should always focus on your defense. You already have tyrant (bis for any summoner by far), evolution’s end and foot of the mountain. Grab two red rings, you’ll see the difference. If you insist on damage, phantom grip is far superior. For helmet try Seed of Ekkidrasil.
For the Golem, tower of bones is mandatory. It’s the only reason alongside hunger to pick the golem over any other minion.
Skeletal rogues are the minions with highest damage by far, with a few changes you should be doing great.
1 Like
Seed is sadly better. Shameful when you realize just how well focused Bone Clamor is for necro. (i mean ward based on nec res and + int…) but nothing beats 28% damage reduction.
"If you insist on damage, phantom grip is far superior. " Only for crit builds. My crit Zoo build does 1100c. But there I can avoid damage by killing everything off screen.
“Cycle x2 is useless, been tested and the special ability does not stack.”
True but the flat damage to minion poison does stack. It is one of the only ways to get flat damage into poison stacks. I do agree though… red rings are superior, esp as resilience is my main issue. Again such a shame how you have to focus into the exact same items for every build.
in the end I went with Abom over golem, way more dps, can create a poision aura, more health and +10% attack speed for all minions near by.
Again such a shame how you have to focus into the exact same items for every build.
Unfortunately, yes. In my humble opinion, for a summoner, there are several items that are bis with little place for discussion. Red rings, seed of Ekkidrasil, Mantle of ox and tyrant skull. Even when there are many great options for relics, the aura of the T-rex is massive.
The only item I don’t understand is your belt. I’d use Strand of Souls. With 111 points of intelligence you have a lot of ward, and with zombies you’ll spend a lot of mana. For boots I prefer stealth, but foot of the mountain would be my second option no doubt. As for the gloves I’m using the same. Damage reduction is the best stat.
And english is not my native language but that is even more obvious
Which isn’t the case in other games of the genre though, where zoo builds at times reign surpreme (more sources of damage) or are rather similar (by balancing the several sources of damage compared to the specialized end-result).
It’s been mentioned over and over again, and whenever I state ‘zoo builds fall flat’ I get immediate flak for it. ‘They’re as fine as never before’ is first off a wrong statement (they were better in very early versions of the game) and also nonsensical when we have a comparison to make rather then taking it individually.
As you state, we got Abom, we got Wolves, we got Wraithlord (still stronger then zoo actually, despite severe nerfs) as examples.
Zoo needs adjustments and EHG fell flat with the things they provided to us, simple as that.
And 700c builds are NOT ‘good builds’, they are at the ‘mediocre’ range with the available options and content we have currently, only supposed to rise further gradually. It’s not a severe outlier but it’s one which needs adjustments as by now every build is supposed to reach 1000c in the current state.
If EHG doesn’t want that then they need to fix the content in the game to adhere to the position they wanna have the builds perform in, there’s simply faults left,right and center so nobody knows what they’re even arguing about anymore since nigh every metric is flawed currently as it’s all over the place.
1 Like
The belt was what i had at hand. I went with a brew masters in the end. No mana issues with this build as vomiting zombies last along time. Its about the poison stacks not the explosions.
I’m a big fan of orions belt with t7 experimental mana on pot slammed on. Belt can give up to 16 I think and t7 mana on pot can go up to 35 each.
Currently I use that with a ring that converts potion ho to ward so I don’t even need to think with auto pot use in settings if full. And if your low life even better because it keeps ward and mana up just walking over potions.
1 Like