





I'm back again and now I have two Animate Weapon builds that I have been playing around with to show you!



One is my older build, Elemental Animate Weapon that uses Anger/Wrath to scale damage to retarded levels.



The other is Poison Animate Weapon, which still has stupidly stupid amounts of damage, but offers a few things Elemental doesn't.



Lets start with what both builds will offer you:



1. Stupidly stupid amounts of damage.





Spoiler Both of these builds just do insane amount of damage once you get 30+ weapons. It makes regular Atziri a joke and most t15 map bosses a breeze. Elemental weapons chunk the life out of enemies while Poison takes only slightly longer to ramp up its damage.



Use of 1 slot Dominating Blow allows you to take control of Rare monsters with valuable auras like additional physical & elemental damage, more ES for casting, and Huge attack/movement speed boosts. You can imagine what that does for your clear speed.



2. Great defenses.



Spoiler With both of these builds you should be able to reach 4.5-5k+ life, and over 3000 Energy shield over your Mana with EB/MoM The massive pool of ES allows you to reserve all your mana for auras or Curses (in the case of Poison Animate Weapon.)



Maxing out your block chance with Gear and Bone Offering is really easy and adds another layer of defense over Life/MoM



Fortify with Advancing Fortress Whirling blades.



12-14 Seconds of Elemental Immunity/Absorption with the Blood of Corruption Amulet. Its ridiculous.





Some problems with these builds include:



Spoiler 1. T16 Map bosses



Avoid these. They are nightmarish. 2 Guardians are immune to Poison which cripples the Poison version of this build, and they have absolutely ridiculous amounts of HP which makes it difficult to kill them before your weapons crap out on you. I have only killed Minotaur once with the Poison version of this build, and it required many portals and two trips to the vendors for weapons. You will not face roll them.



2. Uber Izaro



Labs are OK if you are willing to sacrifice stash space for weapons. Uber lab is very difficult to solo, even with tabs of weapons. I won't say that its impossible, but it isn't fun and the build is not built for farming Labs since your minions do not carry over area to area.



3. Other superbosses.



I'll admit to not having the chance to try Uber Atziri, Shaper, Pale Council, etc etc with this build. But anything with similar HP to a T16 Boss is probably going to be difficult.







" Okay, I want to play Animate Weapon, but which build should I play?





Summary of Elemental Animate Weapon: I believe Elemental Weapons have the highest damage ceiling but I have no math to back that up. If you want the absolute highest theoretical damage, go with Elemental. Elemental Animate Weaponers also offer greater amounts of damage support for parties, with Wrath, Anger and Haste.



Summary of Poison Animate Weapon



Also, Poison Weapons have the very unique trait of being able to take advantage of ON KILL effects. Because the degen they inflict is attributed to your character, whenever your weapon's poison kills something you can proc 'On Kill' effects such as:



- You can summon wolves when your poison kills things. We'll talk more about this claw later.



Or my favourite:

- That regen is huge and it procs often. We'll talk more about this later.



Poison Animate Weapon is better at not dying. I don't play Hardcore, but if you want to try this in HC I think your best bet is with Poison. It doesn't rely on Anger/Wrath for Damage and allows you to run 2 curses which can be used increase your own defenses greatly (Enfeeble, Temp Chains) or Increase the physical/poison damage your weapons do (Vulnerability)Also, Poison Weapons have the very unique trait of being able to take advantage of ON KILL effects. Because the degen they inflict is attributed to your character, whenever your weapon's poison kills something you can proc 'On Kill' effects such as:- You can summon wolves when your poison kills things. We'll talk more about this claw later.Or my favourite:- That regen is huge and it procs often. We'll talk more about this later.





Passive Trees:





The passive trees are very similar with a few changes depending on the build you are doing

Elemental Animate Weapon Elemental



Bandits: Take Oak, Point, Point.

Ascendancy: Prioritize Mistress of Sacrifice, followed with Commander of Darkness, then Spirit Eater. The last two points are freebies.



Bandits: Take Oak, Point, Point.Ascendancy: Prioritize Mistress of Sacrifice, followed with Commander of Darkness, then Spirit Eater. The last two points are freebies.



Poison Animate Weapon



Poison

Bandits: Take Oak, Point, Point.

Ascendancy: Prioritize Mistress of Sacrifice, followed with Commander of Darkness, then Spirit Eater. The last two points are freebies. I take Beacon of Corruption for the chaos res.



Bandits: Take Oak, Point, Point.Ascendancy: Prioritize Mistress of Sacrifice, followed with Commander of Darkness, then Spirit Eater. The last two points are freebies. I take Beacon of Corruption for the chaos res.



Important Uniques for both builds:

Spoiler Advancing Fortress gives you a nice boost to block with Bone Offering helps to cap your block chances.



Gluttony of Elements is so OP I find it difficult to describe in words. Its 14 seconds of elemental absorption that applies to you AND your minions. Most bosses with scary elemental attacks die before it expires. and the -% to Resists is easy to cover for.





Not Required, but very, VERY good:

More weapons to animate = more damage. Plus blind is another layer to your tapestry of defenses. 15% might seem like a low proc chance but when you have 40+ Weapons all bosses WILL be blinded. Leech is neat too for keeping things alive.



This isn't a required unique though. You can go on without it. But once you have it you'll never want to stop using it.



Advancing Fortress gives you a nice boost to block with Bone Offering helps to cap your block chances.Gluttony of Elements is so OP I find it difficult to describe in words. Its 14 seconds of elemental absorption that applies to you AND your minions. Most bosses with scary elemental attacks die before it expires. and the -% to Resists is easy to cover for.More weapons to animate = more damage. Plus blind is another layer to your tapestry of defenses. 15% might seem like a low proc chance but when you have 40+ Weapons all bosses WILL be blinded. Leech is neat too for keeping things alive.This isn't a required unique though. You can go on without it. But once you have it you'll never want to stop using it.









Onto the builds themselves:



" Poison Animate Weapon





Uniques:



Taking Advantage of On Kill Effects:



Kills from Poison applied to your weapons are attributed to your character, so Poison Animate Weapon is unique from Elemental because there is a wider flavour of options we have when it comes to weapons.







The Scourge:

Dual wielding these suckers and whirling your way through packs will get you the absolute highest possible damage from Poison Animate Weapon. Your degen kills will also proc wolves to spawn. However this suffers from the deadly 'Summoner lag' where the new 70% buff being applied to your 60+ minions causes insane latency spikes. Its also probably not good for the server.







Binos: Binos does 2 cool things when your degen kills. Poison spreads to nearby enemies (not 100% confirmed) and you get +200 sexy life or ES regen(if you use Zealot's Oath, or the ZO flask.)



This regen is especially useful with ZO as Animate Weapon costs 230+ Mana PER CAST.





Other on kill effects that I think might be worth taking note of:

Atziri's Splendor

Rigwald's Crest

Blood Dance

The Dark Seer

Daresso's Defiance

Death's Rush

Kills from Poison applied to your weapons are attributed to your character, so Poison Animate Weapon is unique from Elemental because there is a wider flavour of options we have when it comes to weapons.Other on kill effects that I think might be worth taking note of:Atziri's SplendorRigwald's CrestBlood DanceThe Dark SeerDaresso's DefianceDeath's Rush





Current Gear:







Gem Links:



4L: Zombies - Animate Guardian - Minion Life - Minion Resists



Meat shields + Aura Bot, These are best put in a +2 Minion Gems Bone Helmet.



4L: Vaal Haste - Convocation - Flesh/Bone Offering - Increased Duration



Standard summoner fare.



4L: 2 Curses of Choice (Temp Chains/Enfeeble/Vulnerability) - Level 3 Enlighten - Blasphemy



Level 3 Enlighten is very important otherwise you won't be able to cram all your auras in.



6L Chest: Animate Weapon - Added Chaos Damage - Poison - Melee Splash - Increased Duration/Void Manipulation - Minion Damage



3L Weapon: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Dominating Blow



This gets Fortify as a 4th link if you are using Advancing Fortress.



3L Shield: Haste - Discipline - Level 3 Enlighten



Again, needs level 3 enlighten to cram auras in. You could also try a different 35% Aura. Vitality might be interesting.



Ring: Stone Golem











I'm back again and now I have two Animate Weapon builds that I have been playing around with to show you!One is my older build, Elemental Animate Weapon that uses Anger/Wrath to scale damage to retarded levels.The other is Poison Animate Weapon, which still has stupidly stupid amounts of damage, but offers a few things Elemental doesn't.Lets start with what both builds will offer you:The passive trees are very similar with a few changes depending on the build you are doing IGN: PortiaDeRossi Last edited by Organics on Nov 30, 2016, 7:34:08 PM Last bumped on Aug 28, 2016, 2:49:52 AM