Scion vs Witch for summoner build

[ScubaSteve]

I am fairly new to PoE but getting a better grasp I have one character (leauge) to act 4 now and thinking about rolling a witch or scion.

I've heard mixed things that scion is better or witch is for summoner. Also not really into the SRS looking for pure minion build. And I tend to solo mostly.

[Zi]

I play scion summoner atm. Wheck things. Srs are needed for start to feel good ;) But after 50th lvl less and less srs do somth. Aiming to flame golemancer.

Currently caving a blast with new monsters as spectres. Oh, so fun!
But I dont see promised changes to specters from this patch. Is specters upd not made it?

[Drake]

Depends on how you wanna play your summoner. Essentially, go witch if you're going to play heavily with offerings and are going to cast spells, like dark pact, while your minions kill stuff.
Scion hybrid stuff is going to make her very good with dominating blow melee tank (necro champ mostly).
It all depends on what ascendancy you need with your char (dont forget the scion can only have 2 ascendancy notables, while the witch can go up to 4).

[Kamiyama]

Right now I would say that Scion is a better summoner than Necromancer. The reason for this is the best buff you can give your minions is attack speed. Minion damage is good too, but IMO not as good as attack speed.

Prior to Oriath, the Commander of Darkness node gave 5% increased attack and cast speed to your allies for each of your auras. Naturally most necros would have at least a haste and a hatred aura linked to a generosity support. You could do more than 2 auras with very specialized builds, but for most doing two 50% auras is hard enough. That meant a 10% bonus to attack speed for your minions. Cool beans.

Post Oriath, Commander of Darkness is nerfed to 3% increased attack and cast speed to your allies for each of your auras. Now only the min-maxers who are doing 4+ auras get the most out of it. The rest of us have to live with slower minions.

Except the Scion. The Scion can pick both the Necromancer notable and the Guardian notable. The Guardian notable has a whopping 10% increase to attack and cast speed to your allies for each of your auras. Which makes the Scion's Guardian notable twice as good as the pre-nerf Commander of Darkness.

A Scion taking Necromancer and Guardian is just as good if not a better summoner than a Necromancer right now. They can get better minion attack speed, but don't have some of the minion damage passives in the Necromancer ascendancy tree. So it's a bit of a trade off. Myself I would rather have the attack speed.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally posted by Kamiyama:

Right now I would say that Scion is a better summoner than Necromancer. The reason for this is the best buff you can give your minions is attack speed. Minion damage is good too, but IMO not as good as attack speed.

Prior to Oriath, the Commander of Darkness node gave 5% increased attack and cast speed to your allies for each of your auras. Naturally most necros would have at least a haste and a hatred aura linked to a generosity support. You could do more than 2 auras with very specialized builds, but for most doing two 50% auras is hard enough. That meant a 10% bonus to attack speed for your minions. Cool beans.

Post Oriath, Commander of Darkness is nerfed to 3% increased attack and cast speed to your allies for each of your auras. Now only the min-maxers who are doing 4+ auras get the most out of it. The rest of us have to live with slower minions.

Except the Scion. The Scion can pick both the Necromancer notable and the Guardian notable. The Guardian notable has a whopping 10% increase to attack and cast speed to your allies for each of your auras. Which makes the Scion's Guardian notable twice as good as the pre-nerf Commander of Darkness.

A Scion taking Necromancer and Guardian is just as good if not a better summoner than a Necromancer right now. They can get better minion attack speed, but don't have some of the minion damage passives in the Necromancer ascendancy tree. So it's a bit of a trade off. Myself I would rather have the attack speed.

Hm wow very interesting read. Thanks for in depth response. Probably best I've heard thus far.