Path of Exile offers many different playstyles to choose from. With seven original classes and an enormous skill tree, the way you build your character is up to you. One of the most enjoyable and chill ways to play is by summoning minions while you hang back and command them like a general.
If this sounds like fun, the Summoner build is perfect for you. There are multiple ways to build a Summoner in Path of Exile, but for the sake of convenience, this article will take you through an effective, easy-to-learn build.
Path of Exile: Summoner basics
Before getting into our Summoner build, it’s worth understanding the basics of the Summoner. During character creation, pick the Witch class to get started. This is because the Summoner build we’re going for is derived from an Ascendancy class of the Witch: the Necromancer. This is the best class for anything minion-related because of its specific bonuses that buff your summons.
All of the Necromancer’s skills revolve around party auras and interaction with corpses, like Offering skills. Depending on the Offering skill you use, you can gain resources and extend the duration of buffs that are already active. You cannot have two Offering skills active at the same time, though, since the newer one overwrites the older one.
Every Ascendancy class has a minor passive tree, and the Necromancer is no exception. You get access to five different passives, each with its benefits to minions.
- Minion Damage and Life: Increased damage and life to minions.
- Minion Damage, Aura Effect: Increased damage to minions and increased effects of non-curse auras from the Necromancer.
- Minion Damage, Cast Speed: Increased damage to minions and increased cast speed for the Necromancer.
- Minion Damage, Mana: Increased damage to minions and increased mana pool for the Necromancer.
- Minion Damage, Skill Duration: Increased damage to minions and increased duration of the Necromancer’s skills.
Aside from these passives, there are also Notable passive skills that we’ll discuss in detail later. Now that you know what you’re getting yourself into, let’s focus on building the perfect Summoner.
Best Summoner build in Path of Exile
Depending on the stage of the game you’re at, different builds have different effects, and there are a few viable ones to choose from. Of all the Summoner builds that exist, for the sake of this guide, we’ll highlight one made popular by the Path of Exile legend Balormage: the Poison Summon Raging Spirits Necromancer.
As the name suggests, the build revolves around your Summon Raging Spirits skill, creating an army of Raging Spirits that can clear most content in the game. Additionally, this build also focuses on Poison damage, which means maxing out poison chance on your minions is essential.
Alongside Raging Spirits, we’ll add a few other summons to the mix, like Stone Guardians, Spectres, and Stone Golems, making this build feel like a true Summoner. Getting to this point can be quite challenging, so before we get started, we recommend checking out our beginner guide to make the start of your League journey much easier.
Getting started
The first order of business is to turn your Witch into a Necromancer. To do this, you have to ascend them, which involves clearing The Labyrinth. Completing it for the first time will unlock access to all the Ascendancy options available for your character. Simply choose the Necromancer to unlock the class and its unique Ascendancy skill tree.
You will also gain two points to spend, which we will discuss later. This build is also a great starter for any ongoing League because it starts picking up strength as early as level eight. Its damage output quickly ramps up, making it one of the best boss-killing builds in the game, routinely topping the charts with enough end-game gear.
It’s not all sunshine and roses, however. The Summoner isn’t the greatest at clearing the whole map, and having to constantly resummon your units can drain your resources. Since you invest so much in your minions, the build leaves you with very few defensive options. It might not be clear at first, but as you level up, it becomes more noticeable.
The lack of defensive options becomes apparent when you run into a powerful enemy with huge AoE damage that can clear your minions within one or two attacks. That said, the build gets far stronger with levels, gear, and the appropriate passives, which we’ll talk about next.
Passive choices
The core of the build revolves around your passive options. As we all know, Path of Exile has an extensive passive system that spans a massive network encompassing all characters. For the Necromancer, we’ll start at the top part of the passive tree, where the Witch class begins, and branch out northeast and southwest for our minion build.
As you can see, we start with Intelligence and branch out into the right path first, where we pick up more passives for health and mana. Arcanist’s Dominion will grant you more spell damage and cast speed as we work our way toward Lord of the Dead for more minion health and damage. Break off toward the west route for Cruel Preparation and Mana Mastery before continuing east.
Going further east, pick up Eldritch Battery and Reservation Mastery further down the line. Drop down from there and make your way east for Spell Suppression Mastery, and finish up with Energy Shield Mastery to maximize your defense.
After this, go back to the beginning and head west for the rest of the passive skills.
The lower half of the passives go deeper into minion management. The first major passive to pick up is Minion Offense Mastery to power up your summons. Then, pick up Mind Over Matter for defense, and go west until you get to a branching point. From here, head north to pick up Minion Defense Mastery, then go west and pick up Safeguard, then pivot upward again for Life Mastery and Reservation Mastery.
Keep going west until you reach Redemption, then head back to the southern branching path. From here, go further south, picking up Retribution, Discipline and Training, and Sanctity until you get to another branching path. Choose Armour Mastery, Shield Mastery, and Life Mastery to round out your passives.
For a thorough look at the passive tree for this build, check out the passive skill tree on the main Path of Exile website.
Gear options
Your Summoner’s gear setup requires specific options to empower your minions. As you start the game, pick up any pieces that support minions, but as you level up, you need to acquire the following for the end game:
- Main Hand: United in Dream
- Off Hand: Aegis Aurora
- Helmet: Life/Resistance helm with +skills for minions
- Body Armor: The Covenant
- Gloves: Life/Resistance gloves with a chance to Suppress Spell Damage
- Boots: Life/Resistance boots with chances to Suppress Spell Damage and Avoid being Shocked
- Amulet: The Jinxed Juju or Ashes of the Stars
- Rings: Life/Resistance rings with increased damage dealt by minions
- Belt: Darkness Enthroned
United in Dream is mandatory for this build, as it adds poison damage to all of your minions and allows them to regenerate life when they kill enemies. Aegis Aurora pairs perfectly with your weapon to grant you some great defensive options and resistance. Finally, The Covenant provides a massive boost to your defense and your minions’ offense in one gear slot.
Jinxed Juju is needed for additional defense and resistance. If you feel like you don’t need as much protection, Ashes of the Stars provides more in the offense department with decent defenses as well. Rounding things off, Darkness Enthroned comes with an Abyssal Socket, making it a great addition with Abyss Jewels and the perfect rolls you might get.
The items mentioned above are all the best-in-slot gear options for your Summoner build, and they’ll truly make your Necromancer unstoppable as you inch closer to that coveted level 100.
Ascendancy nodes
The final part of this build involves activating the Ascendancy nodes to power up your minions. The nodes below are listed in order of priority, considering how impactful they can be the sooner you pick them up.
- Mindless Aggression: Your minions gain increased damage, attack speed, movement speed, and cast speed.
- Commander of Darkness: You and your allies gain increased damage and resistances. Additionally, your auras grant increased attack speed and cast speed to you and your allies.
- Mistress of Sacrifice: Your skill effects have increased duration. Additionally, your Offering skills affect you for 50 percent of their original effects.
- Bone Barrier: You gain a level 20 Bone Armor skill. Your minions have increased life and your defenses increase based on how many minions you currently have active.
That’s everything you need to know to run a powerful Summoner in Path of Exile.
