[3.18] Zombiemancer Baron Raise Zombie Necromancer Summoner Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links (2024)

Block & Glancing Blows or no Glancing Blows

The only variation we offer for this build guide is the option to either run Flesh Offering for higher Raise Zombie DPS in combination with Bone Barrier, or Bone Offering in combination with Mistress of Sacrifice and Glancing Blows to cap your Block and Spell Block and offer you a way to recover Life when you block.

We have written this guide under the assumption that you’ll be going for Bone Offering. Should you choose to go with Flesh Offering instead, we recommend you path to Soul of Steel instead of picking up Glancing Blows and the 1 Spell Block node above the Witch start.

Passive Skill Tree

Assuming you read through the main page of this build guide, you probably already know what a leveling Passive Skill Tree would look like from the leveling section. You might have realized that there really isn’t anything special about your pathing. You’re looking to pick up a reasonable balance between Life nodes and Minion damage / Life nodes as you level up.

If you level this build with a mixture of Raise Zombie and Summon Holy Relic like we advised before, you really shouldn’t worry about too much re-speccing when you reach maps. The amount of Orb of Regrets you’ll have to use will be very limited if not non-existent. This makes this build perfect for starting in a fresh league / economy.

Later in the Acts/maps, whenever you pick up Mistress of Sacrifice, you want to allocate Glancing Blows as well as the one little Spell Block node to cap out your Spell Block. This will immediately grant you a lot of tankiness while your Zombies keep deleting all enemies around you.

You can find an optimized Path of Building here. Every build I release will use the community fork of Path of Building, which is maintained and updated in a much more regular fashion than the original one. You can find PoB’s Fork, by LocalIdentity, here.

If you are not comfortable with Path of Building, we also have a tree for you on the Path of Exile website. Do note that PoE’s website does not support Cluster Jewels and some specific unique jewels and it is highly recommended you install Path of Building to follow builds most optimally.
For a more thorough breakdown of all items, jewels and flasks, please refer to our Gear page.

Gear, Jewels and Flasks

Progression Advice

Since Zombies really are a late game skill, it’s important you spend your skills / gear choices wisely while leveling up. As you’re aiming for 1000 or 1500 Strength at the endgame and all relevant Minion notables in the Passive Skill Tree, you’re going to need levels to allocate these Strength nodes in the tree.

Next up, obviously there’s also a decent amount of Strength as well as % Increased Attributes – % Increased Strength to be found on items which probably aren’t available to you super early on. We’ll be setting you on your way with a lower level Path of Building that should help you get to 1000 Strength while still maintaining a decent amount of Life & Energy Shield pool and hardly losing damage.

Gem Links

Pre Mistress of Sacrifice – Automated Offering

Since Mistress of Sacrifice is gated behind your last Labyrinth, you’re just going to use Flesh Offering as long as you didn’t get to complete the Uber Labyrinth yet. You’ll be casting Desecrate and Flesh Offering.

1. Flesh Offering
2. Desecrate
3. Inspiration Support

Post Mistress of Sacrifice – Automated Offering

After Mistress of Sacrifice we recommend you immediately swap to Glancing Blows and start using Bone Offering in your Cast while Channelling Support to become a Max Block / Spell Block character.

1. Desecrate (L15-20 depending available Dexterity)
2. Bone Offering
3. Inspiration Support

Aura Setup

1. Pride
2. Dread Banner
3. Awakened Generosity Support

1. Vaal Discipline
2. Vitality
3. Summon Skitterbots
4. Awakened Unbound Ailments Support (This is a very lategame upgrade – Probably only worth if you know how to tinker with gems)

Raise Zombie – Main 6-Link in your Weapon

Levels for Raise Zombie are really really important. You really want a decent source of levels to your Raise Zombie gems whether it is through Empower Support, your weapon(s) or an Amulet. If you are using a very low level Raise Zombie it might be necessary to link a Minion Life Support in order to keep your Zombies alive. In no circ*mstance ever should they be allowed to die.

1. Raise Zombie
2. Empower Support (Ideally L4 – L3 still beats any other support)
3. Multistrike Support
4. Melee Physical Damage Support
5. Minion Damage Support
6. Increased Critical Damage Support

Use Awakened Versions of the Support gems when you can afford them. They’re a fairly big upgrade.

Animate Guardian and Raise Spectre (4-Link in your Helmet)

Make sure to spawn an Animate Guardian only when you acquire a high level one. You ideally want both your Animate Guardian and Raise Spectre gems to be level 21. The reason for this is that Gem levels scale their base Life pool which makes them a lot tankier. Where Spectres really are annoying to have to re-summon all the time, Animate Guardians lose their items on death and your ideal setup isn’t cheap! It is thus important that these don’t die. Before you have access to a level 21 Animate Guardian, we advise you to forego the Guardian entirely and link an extra Minion Life Support to your Raise Spectres.

You’re linking this entire setup to Arrogance Support because of the Spectres you’re going to use. Since you are running 2 Host Chieftains and a Carnage Chieftain which have very limited amount of Mana and a really high Mana cost on their Warcries, which grant you Frenzy and Power charges, you’re linking them to Arrogance Support so they can freely spam their abilities and supply your Raise Zombies from charges all the time.

You can find both Carnage and Host Chieftains in Act 7: The Ashen Fields. Should you have a level 21 Raise Spectre you’ll be able to summon a 4th Spectre which should be a Merveil’s Retainer. These monsters are only found in maps with the modifier “Area is inhabited by Sea Witches and their Spawn”. You can either roll this on a map with Orb of Alteration or buy a map with this modifier on already.

1. Raise Spectre
2. Lifetap Support
3. Meat Shield Support
4. Animate Guardian or Minion Life Support

Carrion Golem & Utility

The last Minion in our arsenal is the Summon Carrion Golem. It grants a really solid amount of Physical Damage to all other Minions and thus also your Raise Zombie. By linking this Golem to Feeding Frenzy Support you’re granting all of your Minions the Feeding Frenzy buff when the Summon Carrion Golem gets it. Since Feeding Frenzy Support grants around 15% DPS to your Raise Zombies, it is pretty nice to be able to get that on a utility Golem.

Next up, we’re also using a Convocation here to control our Minions a little bit better. Lastly, you’re going to want to use either a Dash or a Flame Dash here. If you can get your hands on an Unset Ring, you could move the Convocation there and link Second Wind Support to your Flame Dash here.

1. Summon Carrion Golem
2. Feeding Frenzy Support
3. Convocation
4. Flame Dash

Main Page / TL;DR