Lich Queen Skeleton Summoner Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheon Powers
ASCENDANCY
The optimal way to play this build leaves very few choices when it comes to the Ascendancy nodes, which I will cover in this section of the guide.
MY PREFERRED SET-UP
The ascendancy nodes are listed in order of importance and are presented in the path you’ll need to travel to access them.
- Mindless Aggression
- Unnatural Strength
- Mistress of Sacrifice
- Commander of Darkness
Mindless Aggression
Mindless Aggression is the first node for this build, not for what the node provides per se, but because it is a required prerequisite to reach Unnatural Strength. However, this node does provide a lot of power for your build by increasing your minions’ damage, attack speed, and movement speed.
Unnatural Strength
Unnatural Strength is the most straightforward yet most powerful ascendancy node available to the Necromancer, as it helps us reach higher levels for our Raise Spectre gem. The gem must reach level 25 to provide a total of three spectres. This can be easily done by gaining the +2 gem level granted by Unnatural Strength, by corrupting the gem (increasing it to level 21), and by equipping + to minion skill gems modifiers from a proper endgame weapon. We can gain one more spectre from the tree’s Death Attunement, and a fifth spectre, the maximum obtainable, is possible via a Delve-dropped chest piece featuring the +1 to maximum spectres modifier.
Mistress of Sacrifice
Mistress of Sacrifice is a beautiful node: it’s here to increase your movement and cast speed to clear maps faster. If you decide to go with Bone Offering, you’ll want to utilize this node to easily reach the block cap.
Commander of Darkness
Commander of Darkness is my top choice for this build. It makes gearing cheaper and easier thanks to the extra resistances you gain, and provides increased attack speed and damage for your weapons. You’ll also gain increased cast speed which allows you to quickly summon weapons.
VARIATIONS
For Hardcore leagues, or a more defensively-focused approach, you could swap the Mistress of Sacrifice for Bone Barrier.
BANDITS
As with most summoner builds, you will kill all of the bandits, as they provide no significant gains worthy of sacrificing the skill points.
PANTHEON
As in most builds, Pantheon selection comes down to a matter of personal taste. Personally, I love adding the upgraded Lunaris Major God to avoid chained projectiles so I can completely ignore that modifier on maps when I have an army of minions at my command.
I tend to also lean towards the Shakari Minor God pantheon to mitigate Chaos Damage, which is a resistance very few builds bother to consider.