Minion class?

[Blaze]

Is there a necromancer class included in the EA or will that be later on in full release?

[Nico]

The Witch seems to be designed as a necromancer, but she has no ascendancy for that right now.

[Paolini]

Yes Witch > Infernalist

[Cheerows]

There's none but I assume if you learn how to build a character effectively, you can make good choices in the passive tree and in ascendancies to create a minion based character. For example a warrior ascendancy perk increases minor passive node effects and it may be effective in minions or the gem ascendancy of mercenary could enhance minions and so on. One thing, something related to minion summoning apparently doesn't work well yet so they haven't enabled it in early access yet, I think it's about binding specific enemies to yourself. It's probably best to wait a little and learn the game while they make fixes on minions.

[Airkixer]

Warbringer warrior also has minion synergies

[Thornburst]

no and no

[Luky]

maybe titan with hulking form

[Kalcifer]

All these commoners talking about witch this and warbringer that lol, Im personally doing a legionaire with minions main dps.

Why? Because you have more skills which minions players might love. Im also concentrating on strength because life and I can bypass int requirement on gems and wear plate and 1h and shield.

Few attack skills I will use to debuff, cc, control, support. Probably take titans to wield a 2h in one hand if I find a weapon unique that is busted for what Im planning.

Im going in blind with only knowledge of what GGG has spoiled but as a ssf ruthless player im confident I will have fun. Might not be op at all but I dont care about meta. I just have always loved playing minions of all varieties in POE.

[TheOrigin]

Witch - > Infernalist seems best combo right now. But you can do any class for summon.

[Peeto]

|What ?!? no necro?!? no with with minions? ?! and I paid for what? uh I will play only necro style... do not tell me there is no witch like in POE1 with minion possibilities

[Balekai]

Regardless of what Jonathan said about not making Ascendancy classes being focused on one gameplay mechanic, thus things like Necro class being a thing of the past, Infernalist IS the Witch Necromancer Minion class like a Dev told a streamer as per this video (1 minute mark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq0IsomEJkw&t=1s

The same applies to some other playstyles where it's obvious some ascendencies are tailor made for them even though they can do other things.

Anyways Infernalist gets the following which makes it perfect:

1. Loyal Hellhound
Grants Skill: Summon Infernal Hellhound
20% of Damage from Hits is taken from your Hellhound's Life before you

Must have. A free spirit cost, permanent self reviving PoE2 version of Summon Sentinel of Radiance (Templar Guardian ascendancy minion) in the form of a Hellhound. Sentinel was literally one if not the best ascendancy in PoE1 among all ascendancy classes. We will see if Hellhound has compatible dmg/hp as it does revive so it may be nerfed a bit. It also has a DoT aura apparently and we know it ignites on hit too seemingly.

2. Beidat's Will
Reserves 25% of Life
+1 to Maximum Spirit per 25 Maximum Life

If you're not going Chaos Inoculation (CI, which won't be able to reserve the life) this is the way to go and another must. This when getting like 5K+ health, is easily another 200-300 spirit. Since spirit reserving minions cost LESS spirit as they gain levels, this extra spirit could easily equal another army worth of permanent minions.

3. Seething Body
While on High Infernal Flame, you and Allies in your Presence Gain 20% of Damage as Fire Damage.

This is your alternative ascendancy node if you go CI instead, and non CI builds won't have enough points to really take this due to node layout (unless you give up Hellhound which you won't want to do). Minions also count as allies in addition to other players. So great for group play and buffing the minions of say non-CI Inferalists acting as a dmg multiplier buff for their bigger armies. Think of this as adding another major fire damage support gem to everyone in sight.

Edit: You might want to take some temporary minions active skills like Zombies, Raging spirits to make up for the lack of spirit vs. a Beidat's Will build. Here's my own gem plans in case it helps for (Copium not taking Beidat's Will) CI build:

https://poe2skills.com/share?data=N4IgdghgtgpiBcIByMDuACAQgVwJYBsATEAGhACM8iEBtUAZwGsD8EQmZ8YAXCfdCACd6AezC563Uu2wAHWSMHd6tEADcR+LgE9pAM1yCY6WTDA9BEbrjHT6prehgBjABYjpzsd0GauhdEIYSUFsZ2tbMi8wZzMfKxgAmD09FykAXQBfEgZmLTZLAHNcMEL0e0NcZTs5BSUVeBoQThhYMF5+PRFnbBUyKBKbMHQSyQhyAirdMhLUwUh+LmLIkFwoKE0E-VwYQW1AmCtXECyc9jzWRA4uDvRnLkFcZxr5RWrGkD0ISV277+tStIBuIxOgoP9dtMQPh-uhCt9ZNIjIQwok7iJNIQRKgwHYXGIAqgSsRTrkWGwJmAAvY0kYXnV3k16IdHqV0HoYbBpBBCEEAgYjIFoBBCnAyKhDgphi02rdCMLRdJcIVxNxjLJfPhcHMrENtoKYAAPBT0bB00nncmIQqPKDsw6SelvBo0MDYLQWphW84tW7kUJqp31VQiNS7BQSwTSf2HRgmESSM1ikCwLjq1zaehPPhC8GKshCDZmpzG-AJvVkIJqf5bT0XNgc6DgiZa7hQ02vYMfAXGcE-PbSVxG9DkMsiKD6bq9NE9YTJx7cbB8CTWZx3M3MpVgCqWCK4uvexuwdCoPisMgdhkukBCQ7oER6JwpNKTpRGeh9ZrmQSFfbkISPMEJzZGS+SILIEAlPez6soUQaMs0UARrsaLynmyatMhyLrvkWRZEAA /edit

4. Altered Flesh
20% of Cold Damage taken as Fire Damage
20% of Lightning Damage taken as Fire Damage
20% of Physical taken as Chaos Damage

If Hellhound wasn't enough damage reduction for you, this node which is on the path to Beidat's Will, is some more gimmicky toughness especially for a CI minion build. If you can cap + pump your maximum Fire Resistance and max Chaos Resistance, all damage against you will be mitigated by a ton when combined with Hellhound taking 20% of damage to you to itself.

For CI, you will be immuned to Chaos damage, which means that 20% of all physical damage goes *poof* into thin air like all other chaos damage (Keep in mind that chaos damage in PoE2, does x2 damage to Energy Shield as opposed to ignoring it like PoE1. So it can hit your ES hard when you don't have CI and have low chaos resist). Your Physical damage reduction with Hellhound is automaically around 40% without putting a point into armour.

[Airkixer]

Originally posted by Kalcifer:

Im personally doing a legionaire...

What's lil bro talking about.

[Balekai]

Originally posted by Airkixer:

Originally posted by Kalcifer:

Im personally doing a legionaire...

What's lil bro talking about.

Gemling Legionnaire has some Ascendancy Nodes that can support a pretty/very good minion build in theory. Same ironically for Warrior Titan which gets 1-2 really good nodes for it. Titan can likely be turned into a slamming minion master for heavy stuns + armour break mechanics. The only problem with these other classes is that they have to travel fairly far on the passive tree to get to minion Nodes, since the starter Witch ones mostly disappear from passive tree as they're exclusive to her.

Other people are thinking about exploiting Sorceress Chronomacer Time abilities and 33% chance to ignore cooldowns of all spells (maybe all cooldown abilities don't remember) when they're used.

It's all about pumping Gem level and/or spirit + mass damage scaling or crowd control when it comes to Minion Ascendancy builds in PoE2.

Late Edit: I forgot that on the southern pole of the passive tree (where warriors etc. are at), there's some ally effecting notables that can basically be pseudo minion buffs, like Infernalist's Seething Body. Another reason why the above can be Minion masters possibly.

[MrPalladium]

gemling looks to have good ascendancies for minions

[Mao_Attack]

You gotta remember this

you can use any skill on any character

while there does not seem to be a necro in EA, you can still build a summoner via skills and items

[Xaelon]

Originally posted by Airkixer:

Originally posted by Kalcifer:

Im personally doing a legionaire...

What's lil bro talking about.

One of the ascendancies for the Merc is "Gemling Legionnaire" which gets bonuses centered around gems themselves. You can equip more gems than normal, gain bonus stats from them and equip dex/Int gems with strength (assuming STR is your highest stat) among other things.

If you want full info there is a news post about it and all the other ascendancies launching with EA: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/238960/view/4481740235689952590?l=english