Witch - [3.24] Pure Spectre Necromancer, all content + Uber viable ~100mil DPS - Forum - Path of Exile (2024)

Intro:

Hi everyone,

I want to show you my pure Spectre Necromancer which performed well in content like (Afk)-Blight, T17 Maps as well as being a decent Uber boss killer.

Basics:

The build uses the Raise Spectre and the transfigured Raise Spectre of Transience gems which summon permanent and temporary Spectres respectively. The permanent Spectres are the main source of damage whereas the temporary Spectres are used to introduce Feeding Frenzy and Spectre specific buffs/debuffs and charges into the build.

The permanent spectres used here are the Primal Crushclaw from Harvest and the Cloud Retch from Redeemer influenced maps. They have a powerful default attack that also has innate cold conversion. This enables damage scaling via Hatred and also allows the minions to inflict chills & freezes which increase minion and player survivability.

Since the PCC has built in aoe clear and a gap-closing ability it's much better for regular maps but is worse against bosses and in T17 maps due to lower single target dmg and higher collision. The Cloud Retch has less life but has the same powerful default attack and another ability with a long cd that isn't all too relevant for dmg. Since they have less collision they don't block each other as much when fighting single targets which in combination with higher dmg makes them optimal for bossing. The two permanent spectre setups the build uses are

1) a full range of PCCs for most map-like content
2) a set of Cloud Retch + one PCC (for the inc. cold damage taken debuff) for T17s and Uber bossing.

Raise Spectre of Transience is used to summon temporary Spectres that can introduce Feeding Frenzy and buffs/debuffs or charges into the build. Those support spectres have to be raised with the regular Raise Spectre skill to show up in your Desecrate at some point and a list of useful support spectres (and where to find them) can be found in the notes of the PoBs. It's not always possible to raise a support spectre that provides more than Feeding Frenzy due to the random nature of Desecrate but it's still a worthwhile addition to the build.

For melee Spectres collision limits how many minions can attack a single target which is especially true for small targets. In retrospect I would say that it's probably optimal to limit the amount of temporary spectres to a single one even though the additional benefits of raising more support spectres seem tempting.

Instead of block the build uses spell suppression and evasion (which mostly comes from Grace) as defensive layers in addition to a couple of other things in the medium budget versions on onward.

In order to fit the defensive as well as some offensive auras you need a lot of reservation efficiency and a divine blessing setup for Grace (Haste in the medium budget and onwards). This requires Eldritch Battery and around ~750 ES or so to work. Since we have a range of buffs/debuffs and temporary Spectres to keep up this also solves your mana issues in one fell swoop.

Class/Ascendancy:

You want to play this build on the Necromancer so you can grab Commander of Darkness, Mindless Aggression, Bone Barrier and Plague Bringer for increased elemental resistances, minion damage, -survivability and -duration as well as Minions leeching life to the player.

Bandits & Pantheon:

Kill all bandits for the passive points.

You should use Soul of Ryslatha for flask charges and increased life flask recovery on low life. In addition to that you should also use Soul of Lunaris for defences in the low budget.
In the medium budget you have to use Soul of the Brine King for Freeze Immunity since the build no longer uses Purity of Elements from that point onward.

Leveling:

The base skill gem can be accessed after the quest 'Sever the Rght Hand' in act 3 but isn't used as a main dmg minion early on due to the low maximum number of Spectres. Instead you have to wait until you can access the T17 unique 'Wraithlord' via trade or by farming it yourself. Before that the build should be levelled and played as a non-Spectre build like Absolution or SRS.

Miscellaneous:

Crafting guides for the items and additional pure Spectre Necromancer content can be found in the description of the video guide. A skill guide for the campaign and atlas passive tree progression can be found in the Low Budget PoB.

Enjoy!