Is the build fine for 3.23?

Short answer: yes. The loss of damage doesn’t affect the build. However, losing the minion
movement speed on the Gem quality hurts.

What are the core items of the build?

Severed In Sleep, a well-rolled Darkness Enthroned, a few Abyss Jewels (more on that and
the belt later) and that's literally it.

– POB –
Why is the PoB a seven-link?

You swap between Melee Splash and Multistrike for bosses. And by bosses we mean BIG
bosses, not map bosses. We’re talking Eater of Worlds, Searing Exarch, Maven (+
Invitations), Shaper, Elder, Uber Elder, Sirus, Cortex, Sanctums.

My DPS is shit, surely this can't be right?

Import your build, go to Skills, find Summon Raging Spirits in the list and in the Count box
to the right of the link set-up make sure it's set to 20. You should be somewhere around 4-6m
dps now if you've set-up the links correctly and have reasonable abyss jewels.

Also set your spectres to Pale Seraphim and Arena Master and set up Withered Stacks in the
configuration screen if you want to know boss DPS. Make sure to set Is the Enemy a boss to
Guardian/Pinnacle Boss.

Lastly if you have an Animate Guardian, you need to set-up custom config modifiers in the
config screen and add any curses he’s applying to your own skill list. See Balor’s videos for
more details on this.

How do I check my chance to poison?

Open the Calcs screen, set the Socket Group to Summon Raging Spirits, and click the Show
Minion Stats box. Poison Chance is about half way down the screen. Sadly there is no way
to check the poison chance in-game.

– Build Set-up –
Here is your breakdown of how your gems and links should be set up (- means linked, |
means not linked):
6-link in The Covenant: Summon Raging Spirits - Unleash - Unbound Ailments - Chance
to Poison/Void Manipulation (ONLY when you reach 100% minion poison chance without
the support) - Melee Splash/Multistrike - Minion Damage.

Weapon: Generosity (this links to the Envy aura provided by the weapon) | Frostblink OR
Flame Dash | Shield Charge OR Whirling Blades (for more information about the
movement skills see here)

Shield: Vaal Haste - Divine Blessing | Vitality OR Determination OR Tempest Shield

4-link 1: Arcanist Brand - Bone Offering - Despair - Desecrate (more on the Arcanist
Brand setup here)

4-link 2: Raise Spectre - Animate Guardian - Meat Shield - Minion Life

4-link 3: Summon Stone Golem - Feeding Frenzy | Vitality OR Determination OR

Tempest Shield | Vitality OR Determination OR Tempest Shield

Vitality, Determination and Tempest Shield are single gems without the need for any links.
Fit them where you can, it’s just important to have them.

Maps feeling bad? Use the red socket in your SRS link for a Melee Splash over Multistrike.
Only time to use Multistrike is in bigger Boss fights.

Not moving very well in maps? Make sure you’ve enabled Always Attack Without Moving
on Shield Charge. Left click on the skill and this box appears at the top of the list of skills.

What Pantheon Powers?

Brine King and Abberath. On Brine King, we only really care about the second (100%
chance to avoid being Frozen) and third (50% reduced Effect of Chill on you) upgrade.
What Spectres?

Pale Seraphim and Arena Masters. You can get them either by asking here on discord, or in
/global 6666. When someone is willing to share them with you, here are the steps:

1. Go to their hideout
2. Cast Desecrate.
3. Hover over the corpses (make sure corpse targeting is enabled, Options -> Game)
4. Use Raise Spectre on Pale Seraphim and Arena Master

If you play SSF, Arena Master comes from maps influenced by Drox, The Warlord while Pale
Seraphim is a Beyond demon.

If you manage to get a third spectre (by anointing Death Attunement, for example), you add
the Wild Bristle Matron, a bear-like Harvest mob.

How do I turn all the auras on?

You take the reservation nodes in the Sovereignty wheel on the top left side of the tree, you
pick up the Influence wheel on the top right side of the tree and you grab the Mana Mastery
for 12% increased reservation efficiency from picking up Mystic Bulwark. This is enough to
let you run the Aura setup of Envy (from Severed in Sleep) - Generosity, Tempest Shield,
Vitality and Determination.
When you make the swap to poison, be sure to take off Anger.

Does my Arcanist Brand setup need to be in a specific order?

Yes. Skills trigger in a certain order, basically following the links clockwise (when in a 4-link
this means top left to bottom left). Which means your Arcanist Brand setup should look like
this:

This makes it so Bone Offering triggers first

and you can keep your block chance up
throughout the map. Despair and Desecrate
really only matter on bosses/nasty rares so
we can lower their Chaos Resistance and
spawn corpses for Bone Offering to keep
our block up on a single target.

An alternative setup to this is having Arcanist Brand before Desecrate, then Bone Offering,
then Despair. This triggers Desecrate first and then Bone Offering to get your block up earlier
on Bosses. If we use the image above for reference, this means that Arcanist Brand would go
in Despair’s socket, Bone Offering would go into Arcanist Brand’s socket and Despair in
Bone Offering’s socket.

What gem should I drop in a 5-link?

Minion Damage support.

What movement skill should I use?

This comes down to personal preference, you have two “categories” of movement skills in
this build: For fast movement it’s either Shield Charge or Whirling Blades and for moving
over gaps and such it’s either Flame Dash or Frostblink.

What to put on my Animate Guardian? (affectionately called “Bob”)

Core items, irreplaceable:

Boots: Windscream (for an additional curse)
Gloves: Asenath’s Gentle Touch (gives the AG a Temporal Chains curse and explode)

Slots with multiple options (click the item name to go the item’s Wiki page):

Helmet Chest Weapon

Geofri’s Crest (cheap, Gruthkul’s Pelt (cheaper Dying Breath (cheap,
provides your AG with than the other two options, provides increased damage)
resistances), possibly with a provides tankiness for your
% life regen corruption AG but less than
 Doppelgänger)

Leer Cast (cheap, gives Garb of the Ephemeral Kingmaker (ridiculously

50% increased damage), (moderate price, provides expensive, provides Fortify
possibly with a % life regen tankiness for you, extra and Culling Strike)
corruption options on Synthesis
Implicits)

Crown of the Tyrant Doppelgänger Guise

(specifically with a WHITE (moderate price, provides
socket for tons of extra flat tankiness for your AG)
chaos damage, expensive)

To assemble him, go to a combat zone (I use Blood Aqueducts as a habit), chuck everything
onto the floor and then press the AG button and click on the uniques. If you are not in a
combat zone, the game will ask you if you wish to delete the item. No. Move zones.

How do I stop my AG from dying?

Do you have the Minions recover 5% of Life on Minion Death mastery from the Minion
Defence options? This will keep your AG alive through complete hell, so long as you are
spamming raging spirits out. They count as dying when replaced with a fresh one, so even
continuing to cast when 20 spirits are active will heal the AG. Other possibilities include
you're on a less recovery map. Don't run those in general. Build hates it. A Divergent
Animate Guardian Gem will provide your AG with more life.

Why does my Divine Blessing - Haste not work?

To make sure your Divine Blessing - Haste can go off without a hitch, you should aim to
have around 1,200 Energy Shield. Depending on your total Mana, Haste on Divine Blessing
will cost about 640 Mana to activate. So to not leave you completely empty on Mana after
activating it, aiming at about double the number needed to activate it is a good benchmark.

Should I use a Dendrobate? The written guide suggests it and Balor said…

No. Don’t do it. Stop. Dendrobate is a bad item and should’ve never been anywhere near this
build. A rare corrupted 6-link with actual stats is preferable. Ideally you want an Energy
Shield base (to run Divine Blessing, see the question above).

– Fantastic Abyss Jewels and How to craft them –

This build relies on some good Ghastly Eye Jewels to unlock its full potential. Luckily, they
are not that hard to craft - so if you don’t want to spend copious amounts of currency on the
perfect jewel and can settle for something usable, consider crafting them yourself. We always
start with a base jewel that’s at item level 60 or above. This is the minimum item level where
the mod Minions have (10-15)% chance to Poison Enemies on Hit can roll. You will start
with a magic base - either by picking a magic base up or by using an Orb of Scouring and
then an Orb of Transmutation on a rare base. Then you spam Orbs of Alterations until one of
three things happens:

You hit +# to Maximum Life or Minions deal # to # additional Chaos Damage: Use an
Orb of Augmentation and pray for Minions have (10-15)% chance to Poison Enemies on
Hit. The second desirable suffix is Minions deal (15-20)% increased Damage if you've
used a Minion Skill Recently, but early on we want to focus on our Poison Chance above all
else. If you don’t hit either of the suffixes, just continue spamming Alterations.

If you roll Minions have (10-15)% chance to Poison Enemies on Hit, I would stop and just
use a Regal Orb without an Augmentation beforehand. This node is so important early, hell,
I’d even consider using just that magic jewel if I’m low on currency. If the regal leaves you
with empty prefixes, it is worth considering using Exalted Orbs to get either Life or flat chaos
damage. Close your eyes and slam, Exile.

Worth noting, that in the process of doing this, don’t be tempted to go well, it’s not t1 or t2
flat damage, better roll over it. No. Bad Crafter. You’ll take what you roll and upgrade as
you find more jewels.

If your craft is good, but not an upgrade for you, congratulations. You probably just made
money. Sell it, get another base, move on.

Ultimately, you will have options with your Abyss jewels:

- MOST IMPORTANTLY: Cap your poison chance at 100%! Easiest way to do this is to
use 2 Jewels with Minion Chance to Poison in your Darkness Enthroned and the Chance to
Poison support gem. If you only want to use one more Jewel with Minion Chance to Poison
on your tree (and it is advised you do so), you need AT LEAST a 54% increased Effect
Darkness Enthroned, socketed with two 15% Chance to Poison Jewel in it and a 14% Jewel
in the tree.

For further information on breakpoints, please refer to this graphic. If the increased effect of
your Darkness Enthroned doesn’t show up on the left, please refer to the previous breakpoint.

- Once you made sure your poison chance is capped, the stats we want are:

● +# to Maximum Life
● Minions deal # to # additional Chaos Damage
● Minions deal (15-20)% increased Damage if you've used a Minion Skill Recently

Note that while it is possible to get all three (or four even, with the Poison mod) of these
mods on a single jewel, it’s very expensive to buy and hard to craft. Two of those mods are
better than none.
Another important note - we ONLY care about flat chaos damage for minions EVEN IF
PATH OF BUILDING SAYS OTHERWISE! All other types of flat damage are pretty
much useless to the build. Yes, even Fire and Physical.

– Further Upgrades –
What gear piece should I upgrade first? What is the priority order? (coming soon)

Are you Level 90? Focus on getting there.

Are you on a Covenant? If not, get that. A 5-link Covenant is more important to the build
than a 6-link rare.

Is an Aul’s Uprising worth it?

That always depends on the price of the item in the league. If it is more than 20 divines, then
probably not unless you have that kind of currency to spare and it would be your last big
upgrade. Missing out on Malevolence as another aura means you miss out on 20% more
damage, and while this sounds like a lot, we already deal A LOT of damage.

Also, you have options when it comes to your Aul’s. Determination, Envy, Haste all let you
put Malevolence in on a Divine Blessing, and getting an Aul’s with Malevolence means you
can run it and keep Haste on Divine Blessing (the least recommended option). So you can go
for the cheapest option available. But until then The Jinxed Juju is your best in slot amulet.

Is the build ailment immune?

No, but also yes. Scorch and Sap are not important enough to care (Scorch lowers your
resistances and Sap lowers your damage - THE HORROR!). If your Animate Guardian wears
Garb of the Ephemeral, you’re chill and freeze immune and nearby enemies cannot deal
critical strikes against you, taking care of Brittle and the other two cold ailments. Tempest
Shield grants Shock immunity. That leaves us with Ignite, which we lessen the duration of by
60% with the Abberath pantheon. So we are ailment immune in all but name.

What are no-go map mods for this build?

There are two specifically that cannot be run: Players cannot regenerate Life, Mana or
Energy Shield and Players have #% less Recovery of Life and Energy Shield.

Everything else is doable. And if you super-juice your maps, the Monsters have a 50%
chance to avoid Poison, Impale, and Bleeding can get annoying, as does #% reduced
Chance To Block and Players have x% reduced effect of Non-Curse Auras from their
skills.
Why don’t we use Unholy Might?

Because SRS converts 100% of its Physical Damage to Fire. Besides, we’re already doing so
much damage that the defensive option with Bone Barrier is preferable.

– Videos –
Videos from 3.23

Poison SRS Necromancer UPDATE For PoE 3.23 League Starter Build Guide

Videos from 3.22

Build guide video:

Poison SRS Necromancer UPDATE For PoE 3.22 League Starter Build Guide

Videos from 3.21

Build guide video: (3.21) My League Start Build - Poison SRS Build Guide
Day 1 Update: (3.21) SRS Necro Day 1 Progress - Poison Tomorrow?
Day 2 Update: (3.21) Poison SRS Necro - Day 2 Update
Day 4 Update: (3.21) Poison SRS Necro - Day 4 Update
How to min-max: (3.21) Poison SRS Necro - How to minmax
Video of this doc (ooh, a loop):
(3.21) Poison SRS Necro - All of Your Questions Answered

Videos from 3.20

Original showcase: (3.20) Poison SRS - The Perfect Relic Hunting Build Showcase
Budget version: (3.20) 2 Divines - Unethical Budget Poison SRS Build Guide
51 mil DPS endgame version:
(3.20) Dominating The Endgame With A 51m DPS Poison SRS Necromancer
Uber boss version: (3.20) Ultra High Budget Endgame Poison SRS - Including Uber B…

– Discord –
If any of your questions are still left unanswered, join Balor’s Discord and check the
#help_me channel in the Path of Exile category. We can help you out. :)