Are spectres viable without tree investment?
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Hi.
I found a perfect turtle on a ritual altar and thought I could make good use of it as an extra layer of defense. The problem is that they die easy (even with meat shield and minion life and convocation spam) and don't regen in the hideout so it's a bit of a pain in the butt. Do they require a lot of investment to make them last? I understand it would be easier to just summon golems constantly (or have automated immortal call) but I like the turtle :( I don't need it to do damage, just give me the buffs. Last bumped on Mar 12, 2026, 10:03:36 PM
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In my experience they do require some investment from tree or otherwise to be particularly helpful. The recent changes with it reviving when changing zone, mean they are more viable than before, but still may not be useful for your build. They don't have that same easy functionality of golem that you can just res at any time.
The turtle is great, though it's pretty slow. Combine this with if it is dying easily on your set up, then it might be more trouble than it is worth, and better use of the sockets that you are using on something else. You will notice most non-minion builds don't just throw in spectres to make use of the buff. The sort of thing that can increase the survivability are resistances, block, phys, your auras, minion recovery, spectre gem level and supports, and other minions do some of the agro. If you are not getting some of getting these already as part of your build, or without very minor investment, it might not be worth running the spectre in area where it can not keep up with your survivability. They are pretty cool on build that have some of this. I'm playing a spell templar currently, that is not full minions, and they are staying alive without full investment in yellow map, though they may struggle when I push into red maps. In Pob you should be able to see the specific stats it has, and will give you an idea of why it is dying exactly. At the level you are using without investment, you would probably notice they are somewhat similar to golems, which die frequently on non minion builds without investment. I think the perfect turtle at lvl20 has 50 ele res 0 chaos res 60k armour and 30k life, which sounds tanky and maybe stronger than a golem, but it is a huge magnant for damage, that doesn't micro out of anything, or use flaks. It's certainly possible to make it much stronger, but at the base line, if you are doing say juiced red map, it is going to die frequently. Most player don't run animate gaurdian either, even from what i've seen with the changes, but it is probably a lot easier to make it tanky, and it doesn't get used some much on random builds (Maybe it is more now, I don't know the meta that well). The other thing is, free determination is great, but most builds that benefit a lot for determination are already using it. The turtle aura is less dependable, because of the radius, and if it dies. The base determ effect is pretty handy, but if your build is using other defensive layers than armour, it may not help all that much. Say if block capped, a reasonable modest armour buff, might not be helping thar much, against large phys hits that get past the block check and not need against small hits that the block protects from. Last edited by Belegur85#5784 on Mar 11, 2026, 12:22:43 PM
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" Aaaaw, that's such a pity. It's such a great alternative for mercenaries. The main reason I use the turtle over golems is that I don't have mana to spam golems and also the turtle gives me 2s immunity to phys damage which is super good, specially in the lab where I can just tank all the traps within that 2 second window. The free determination is OK but I have barkskin for small phys hits already, I don't benefit much from determination (although everything helps). The issue is... If I decide not to use it for maps and only use it whenever I do certain mechanics (heists, lab, blighted maps, etc) and switch to something else for maps then I lose the corpse forever. |
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Yeah, if you're warden, probably not much in that section of the tree that will help with keeping it alive.
Yeah, I think it is pretty well balanced in that way, but it does suck if you wanted to able to use it from time to time. They are a bit clunky in that way. It has been improved, but they could make it even better. Similar thing, I found a dark marionet that i was using, but during levelling, when build is getting changed a lot, it's hard to be using it, without the ability to easily swap it around at times. They are pretty good if you get one that can work with your build. I'm going to try and farm a couple on ritual if I get my second atlas soon. Currently i'm just using the host chieftain, which is pretty good for the charges. Last edited by Belegur85#5784 on Mar 11, 2026, 1:00:44 PM
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How's it going? I see you still have spectre on your build, are you still running with the turtle? With your 20/20 spectre gem, maybe it is fairly tanky.
I'm thinking the main problem is if it doesn't have any %recovery. With their big health pool % recovery can make them stay alive pretty well if they don't get completely overrun by juiced content. Looks like you are running it with the golem as well? Looks like an interesting build you're making. Last edited by Belegur85#5784 on Mar 12, 2026, 7:46:37 PM
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" Hi! Thank you for the interest. I'm still using the turtle. It can survive T16 maps for quite a while. If it dies and I enter a mirage I get it back and if it dies in the mirage I get it back once again when I exit. It gives me very needed layers of defense vs phys damage (6% reduction, 2s immunity and a bit of armour with determination). I usually leave it behind. Because it's so slow, it stays alive while I clear and if I need it I use convocate and it draws aggro and gives me 2s invulnerability to phys damage. Bosses seem obsessed with it, so it makes it easier for me to cast Unbound and just pepper them with full damage (I can't land the projectiles vs melee bosses that move towards me so this is very important, otherwise I'd probably get rid of it and swap it for steelskin or immortal call). If I end up getting Replica Stampede boots I might anoint them with Sacrifice to give the turtle some extra life and life regen. I don't use the golem right now. I have it to level it up in case I do end up getting rid of the Turtle later on. The build is super clunky though. I either do massive damage or none at all (depending on whether or not I can land the projs, it works well vs big bosses but not so much vs small or hasted rare enemies). I'll get some more proj speed and Nimis and see if it gets better. If that doesn't fix the issue then I can always switch to Frost Blades or something. Cheers! |
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Nice one. Cool that it sort of works and you've got a giant turtle backing you up.
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