Ultimate Raise Spectre Necromancer Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links

Path of Building

Path of Building is available for my build here.

DPS is counted for each spectre individually — remember you have 4 (or 5, if you have a +1 gems item!).

We use the Path of Building Community Fork for all of our builds, which is highly recommended. If you are encountering errors importing the build, please ensure you are using the Community Fork.

Passive Skill Tree

Currently we offer two different versions of the build.

League Starting / Solo Self-Found / All-Rounder

This is our recommended Level 90 Passive Skill Tree for our Raise Spectre guide.

This is our default variant and the most suited to approaching all situations. It is survivable and malleable, suitable to any level of gear, experience, or league. Solo Self-Found players, in particular, will rejoice at how easily this build slips into their league with its lack of reliance on unique items and easy transition into maps and end-game.

This build can achieve a lot of power early, as most surplus points are invested towards tying Jewel Sockets together. What does this mean for the average player? You can hit your “full tree” power spike, with all the critical nodes acquired, in the early to mid eighties. Any levels you gain afterwards will still have noticeable impact as you consolidate Jewels and better gear, but they will not break the build either. The result is a build that feels comfortable all the way through the end-game, from the first map to the first Awakener kill.

Since our build utilizes both Wrath and Zealotry, the reduced Mana reservation node in the Sovereignty notable wheel is taken. Jewels should be invested towards as soon as you have them — since this build makes exclusive use of Ghastly Eye Jewels, which are typically not expensive or difficult to self-craft, this can usually be done fairly early on.

Ultimate End-Game Maven Murderer ( The Devouring Diadem)

Coming soon for 3.16 Scourge

This is our recommended Level 100 Passive Skill Tree for our Raise Spectre end-game Maven Murderer.

So what is different about this version other than the clickbait style title?

• Significant damage increase (~60% more end-game DPS per spectre, or about 10m Shaper DPS with four spectres)
• Mind over Matter
• Full Mana Reservation possible due to Eldritch Battery provided by The Devouring Diadem

Trade League players should look at this variant as the logical end-point for your build excluding true “luxury” items that only the truly rich players can make eyes at. The gear required is not particularly expensive or restricted as Path of Exile builds go, but it might be difficult to acquire on Solo Self-Found. At the core of the concept is The Devouring Diadem, which improves auras considerably and allows for more investment of Mana, as well as providing Eldritch Battery. Since we do not naturally need a lot of Mana to function, we get maximum benefit: a bit of extra Energy Shield padding, a fully reserved Mana bar, and Mind Over Matter.

Check out the Gems section for specific linkages pertaining this this variant of our build. The gear page also contains recommendations for players opting for this end-game version of our Spectres Necromancer.

Gear, Jewels, and Flasks Breakdown

Passive Tree Progression Advice

Due to a fair amount of allocation being invested towards Jewel sockets, you can easily acquire all the core notables and keystones by the time you reach maps. Most of the end-game points are used to pick up additional Jewels and Maximum Life.

• Early Mapping
• Uber Labyrinth / Level 90

Gems

In addition to the Raise Spectre link for our Slave Drivers, we also use Armageddon Brand as a means of applying our curse of choice and Blind Support. Brand skills are excellent to suit this purpose, as they stick to targets, can be cast at range while repositioning, and do not need to be re-applied if the target moves. This makes Armageddon Brand the ideal candidate versus other skills that are often used to fulfill a similar purpose.

Auras are relatively flexible, but our preferences are Wrath and Haste. Zealotry is a better choice than Haste, however, if you are not using Awakened Controlled Destruction Support (or its standard counterpart). Wrath adds a huge amount of Lightning damage to our Raise Spectres. We are able to add a third aura by using The Devouring Diadem, Summon Skitterbots, which is a huge increase to both damage and survivability.

A classic combination of Desecrate and Flesh Offering gives all of our minions a massive injection of attack, cast, and movement speed, and these can be auto-cast to eliminate any frustration — see the Gear section for more information.

Raise Spectre Slave Drivers 6-Link

Many players have complained of the Slave Drivers having “twitchy” AI, and not behaving as predictably as other spectres. Having Feeding Frenzy Support replace our Predator for mapping is the key to addressing this issue. Awakened gems are not necessary even for end-game boss killing and can be swapped out for their normal counterparts without any interference.

1. Raise Spectre
2. Awakened Spell Echo Support
3. Awakened Minion Damage Support
4. Predator and Feeding Frenzy Support
5. Awakened Controlled Destruction Support
6. Awakened Elemental Focus Support

Important note: On fights like Awakener (Sirus) Predator is the key to saving your Slave Drivers from themselves. What this gem does is essentially forces your spectres to stick to the target, which is exceptionally useful as it allows you to run around without worrying about them leashing back to you or running off into the Deatomization Storms and killing themselves. For almost all situations other than serious bosses (think Elder, Shaper, Awakener, etc.) you will want to use Feeding Frenzy Support to set the Slave Drivers AI aggressive, which helps prevent them from standing idly while you clear a map. There is no need to swap Feeding Frenzy Support and Predator for map bosses unless you are really going for maximum optimization.

Alternative considerations:

• Empower Support (Level 4) should be used in place of Elemental Focus Support if you cannot afford or obtain the awakened version (SSF).
• Elemental Army Support — good all-purpose option that also beefs up your spectres. Only recommended to use if it is not in your Animate Guardian link already.

Remember to remove Spell Echo Support from the link when casting Raise Spectre to summon the Slave Drivers, or you will summon twice in a row causing additional random spectres to spawn. We are using Spell Echo Support purely for influencing the Slave Drivers damage, not for the manual casting of Raise Spectre itself.

Armageddon Brand 4-Link

As we mentioned earlier in the guide, Armageddon Brand is a self-cast skill that is used to trigger the Elemental Equilibrium effect. In addition to being a straight damage boost for that aforementioned reason, it can also be used as a means of applying a Curse of Choice as well as Blind Support.

1. Armageddon Brand (Level 1)
2. Blind Support
3. Hextouch Support
4. Curse of Choice

Our default recommendation for your curse is Conductivity, since our build has fairly potent base survivability and most players look to maximize their damage output. For this purpose, Conductivity is an ideal candidate, adding further chance to shock and further reducing enemy Lightning Resistance. Other options can be more defensive, especially for players on the Hardcore servers, or for those who want to give themselves the best chance of reaching Level 100. Good options for defense are Temporal Chains and Enfeeble.

Auras 4-Link

Default Build

Vaal Haste is only used for the active effect, and Haste itself is not employed. Generosity Support is a very important gem for maximizing the damage of our Raise Spectres. Quality on the aura gems is actually beneficial, unlike most builds, because having a healthy area of effect ensures that your spectres are always benefiting from your buffs.

1. Wrath
2. Summon Skitterbots
3. Dread Banner
4. Generosity Support

The Devouring Diadem Build

These auras must be socketed in The Devouring Diadem. Zealotry can be a better choice than Vaal Haste depending on your level of gear, though Haste is better in the majority of cases — check POB for accurate information pertaining to your character.

These auras should be linked together:

1. Wrath
2. Vaal Haste ( Haste is active for this build variant)
3. Generosity Support
4. Summon Skitterbots

Animate Guardian 4-Link

Animate Guardian is an important support minion that can equip items and even Uniques to help buff you and your Raise Spectres. Summon Stone Golem grants Life Regeneration and acts as a distraction in many situations. If you are struggling to keep your Animate Guardian alive early on, consider replace the golem with Minion Life Support until you are able to better equip your guardian. It is also very important that your Animate Guardian is Level 20 before making any significant investment as this has a very large influence on survivability of the guardian.

1. Animate Guardian
2. Summon Stone Golem
3. Raise Zombie
4. Elemental Army Support or Minion Life Support

The most important items to equip your Animate Guardian with are typical support Uniques. These are commonly used for this purpose and very cheaply obtained, and perfectly viable for leagues such as Solo Self-Found:

• Leer Cast
• Dying Breath
• Southbound
• Rainbowstride
• Ambu's Charge

We will go into more detail about the Animate Guardian and more ways of optimizing it later in the guide — check the Improving the Animate Guardian section on the main page to learn more.

Desecrate and Flesh Offering 3-Link

This link should ideally be socketed in a wand with the crafted affix “Trigger a Socketed Spell When You Use a Skill” if possible, as it removes the need to cast any of these skills.

1. Desecrate
2. Flesh Offering
3. Arcane Surge Support (Level 1) or Enduring Cry

Cast when Damage Taken Support 3-Link

1. Cast when Damage Taken Support (Level 10)
2. Immortal Call (Level 12) or Guard Skill of Choice
3. Phase Run (Level 12)

Unset Ring(s) 1-Link(s)

Flame Dash should be socketed in an Unset Ring.

If you are not using Convocation in your Wand, it can be helpful to have a second Unset Ring with Convocation socketed. If you have Convocation elsewhere, you can opt for another ring base, or add a golem in the unset ring slot.

Similar to Armageddon Brand, it can be beneficial to keep these gems at Level 1 to avoid running out of Mana if you are casting them often.

Main Page