Animate Weapon 
Puppeteer

Created for Legacy of Phrecia 

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The Animate Weapon is an unusual Minion Skill that consumes Items on the ground to create a spectral copy of that Weapon to fight for you for a long duration. Doing so is very impractical, but you can also create Lingering Blades with other Skills like Ethereal Knives or Bladefall to materialize your army. The Transfigured Animate Weapon of Ranged Arms is very similar, but it creates ranged weapons instead. Those Skills do not share their maximum limits with each other, but usually using both of them at once is problematic as you would spend too much time resummoning your army. It is an annoying process, but your Minions will last for over a minute so you don't need to repeat it too often. 

The special Puppeteer Ascendancy available only during the Legacy of Phrecia Event League offers unique benefits for the Summoner archetype, especially the Animated Weapons and Zombies. With this Ascendency, each time you use the Animate Weapon Skill you will create two copies of your Minions, which massively helps with maintaining your army. This Marionettes Notable also grants Splash for your Melee Animated Weapons and boosts your Animated Guardian. The second very important aspect of this Build is the Feeding Frenzy Notable, which sets the Critical Strike Chance of your Minions to be equal to your Weapon. Thanks to the Trypanon Unique Weapon you will make your Minions always deal Critical Strikes, which is an incredible way to boost their Damage, even if it costs you the Weapon slot. 

The Animated Weapons deal Physical Damage, but their natural growth with Gem Levels is rather slow compared to other Minions. Instead, you should focus on granting your Minions added Elemental Damage from other sources, such as Abyss Jewels and Auras. However, the Gem levels are still important to raise the survivability of your Minions and increase their maximum summon limits. The Puppeteer is a Templar after all, so you can use the Forbidden Flesh&Flame to borrow Elemental Relics from the Guardian Ascendency, providing you powerful Anger, Wrath, and Hatred Auras without reserving your Mana, and allowing you to use a more defensive-oriented setup instead. 

You can also check all our Guides for the on-going Event right here: Best Builds for Legacy of Phrecia

1. Gameplay

You will start by creating Lingering Blades and animating them into Ranged Weapons, which will last for over 90 seconds, giving you enough time to clear most of the Map before time runs out. When you encounter a tougher enemy, use this opportunity to summon your Melee Animated Weapons or refresh the Ranged ones. If that's not enough, use Flesh Offering to boost their Attack Speed and Curse Enemies with Enfeeble and Elemental Weakness. 

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

The Animated Weapons are very powerful during leveling and can be used very early on, but there is a catch. You need to get the transfigured Ethereal Knives of Lingering to use Animated Weapons on level 4, otherwise, you would need to wait for the Bladefall Skill which requires level 31. You can check out our Top 10 Leveling Unique Items for more tips and ideas on how to speed up your leveling process. 

Bandits:

It is best to help the Alira Bandit to get a 15% bonus to all Elemental Resistance. 

Leveling Skill Trees:
40 Points Passive Tree

The starting area is very rich with Minion Passives. Prioritize the extra duration with Enduring Bond, the pick up remaining Damage and Life Notables in the radius. 

69 Points Passive Tree
Get even more duration, Minion Damage, and Life. You should also pick the Eldritch Battery to help with sustain. 

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

119 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Unique or Cluster Jewels)
119 Points Path of Building(PoB) link 

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in the order:

1. Marionettes
2. Rotting Might
3. Feeding Frenzy
4. Hexbearer

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali: 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time; +40% Chaos Resistance against Damage Over Time

Minor God: Soul of Shakari: 50% less Duration of Poisons on You; You cannot be Poisoned while there are at least 3 Poisons on you

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Animate Weapon of Ranged Arms setup
	Animate Weapon of Ranged Arms - consumes an Item or Lingering Blade to summon a spectral Ranged Weapon that attacks any nearby enemies.
	Greater Multiple Projectiles Support - it should be replaced with Returning Projectiles Support against Bosses.
	Pierce Support
	Minion Damage Support
	Critical Damage Support
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support

[DPS] Animate Weapon setup socket in the Weapon
	Animate Weapon - the regular version of this Skill summons Melee Minions. Try to get the Vaal version for an extra burst against Bosses.
	Fortify Support - it should be provided by your Weapon. It increases the Damage of your Minions but also makes them more durable.
	Ruthless Support
	Hypothermia Support
	Minion Damage Support
	Critical Damage Support
	Elemental Damage with Attacks Support

[UTILITY] Auras setup
	Purity of Elements - grants you and your Minions extra Elemental Resistance and immunity against Ailments.
	Grace - your main defensive Aura that grants you Evasion. If you don't have the Forbidden Jewel setup, you should replace one Aura with Wrath instead.
	Aspect of the Spider - inflict nearby Enemies with Webs that slow down their Movement and increase the Damage they take. It is obtainable only via Affix on your Gear.
	Precision - if your Minions lack Accuracy, you could use this Aura instead. It shouldn't be a permanent solution.

[UTILITY] Arcanist Brand setup
	Enfeeble - a defensive Curse that lowers the Accuracy and Damage dealt by Enemies.
	Flesh Offering - increases the Attack Speed of your Minions. You can replace it with Bone Offering to improve their survivability.
	Desecrate - summon Corpses necessary for the Offering Skills.
	Arcanist Brand - automatically triggers all linked Spells with just one button.

[UTILITY] Golem setup
	Summon Carrion Golem - creates a Minion that grants extra Damage to all your other Minions.
	Feeding Frenzy Support

[UTILITY] Other Utility skills
	Convocation - teleports all your active Minions to your location and heals them a bit.
	Ethereal Knives of Lingering Blades - creates Lingering Blades which you need to create your Minions.
	Elemental Weakness - an offensive Curse that lowers all Elemental Resistances of affected Enemies.
	Frostblink - an instant Blink Spell that teleports you a short distance.
	Animate Guardian - every minion build can benefit from Animate Guardian or Raise Spectre setups that grants additional benefits to you and your minions, but managing it can be expensive and annoying. if you want to include one in your build, we recommend our Animated Guardian Setup Guide.

5. Gear Setup

The Trypanon will massively boost your early progression, but you will eventually need bonuses to your Minion Damage, Attack Speed, and Accuracy, which is mostly sourced from Abyss Jewels and Rings. Additional Gem Levels are also important - they increase the maximum amount of Weapons you can summon, and their survivability. A bit of Cast Speed greatly helps with summoning your army, but it is not important for your actual Damage, so don't focus on it too much. For defense, you will be using maximum Life, Evasion, and Spell Suppression. The Doppelgänger Guise also provides a massive amount of Physical Damage Reduction. The Energy Shield is not your main focus, but you should have enough to comfortably summon your army without waiting for recovery. 

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - the Helmet can provide additional Gem Levels for your Minions. Pairing it with Spell Suppression might be too expensive, but you should keep at least maximum Life and some Resistance.

Min. requirements: +90 to maximum Life  +40% to Elemental and Chaos Resistance +1 to Level of all Minion Skill Gems Optional affixes: % chance to Suppress Spell Damage Grants level 30 Aspect of the Spider Attributes

(Weapon) Trypanon - thanks to your Ascendency the Base Critical Strike of your Weapon also applies to your Minions. You should try to get a Corrupted Implicit that grants extra Fortify Support for your Melee Weapons, and link it using Tainted Currency.

50% reduced Attack Speed This Weapon's Critical Strike Chance is 100% Recommended Corrupted Implicit:  Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 10 Fortify

(Body Armour) Doppelgänger Guise - a very powerful defensive Armour that grants you tons of Damage mitigation against Physical and Chaos Damage, Life Regeneration, as well as Evasion and Energy Shield.

Grants Level 20 Unhinge Skill (40-60)% more Critical Strike Chance while Insane Enemies Killed by your Hits are destroyed while Insane (40-30)% less Physical and Chaos Damage Taken while Sane Regenerate 10% Life over one second when Hit while Sane

(Amulet) Replica Dragonfang's Flight - it can increase the Gem levels of both your Setups by 3, giving them a solid boost to defense, and usually raising the maximum summon limit by 1.

+(10-16) to all Attributes +3 to Level of all Animate Weapon Gems +(5-10)% to all Elemental Resistances (5-10)% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills Items and Gems have (10-5)% reduced Attribute Requirements

(Amulet) Defiance of Destiny - a very good defensive Amulet that greatly improves your Life Recovery, which is important for builds without Leech.

+(60-80) to maximum Life +(10-40)% to Fire Resistance +(10-40)% to Cold Resistance +(10-40)% to Lightning Resistance Gain (10-20)% of Missing Unreserved Life before being Hit by an Enemy

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - at first you should use a Rare Amulet to cover your Resistance and Attributes. Getting those modifiers here will allow you to get better Rings for cheaper price.

Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life  +80% to Elemental and Chaos Resistance +40 to Dexterity or Strength Optional affixes: +1 to Level of all Physical Skill Gems

(Gloves) Triad Grip - initially the Damage Conversion can be very useful as you won't have that much Damage from other sources than Minions themself. The Green Sockets are preferred, but not necessary.

(80-120)% increased Armour and Energy Shield Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Fire Damage per Red Socket Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Cold Damage per Green Socket Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Lightning Damage per Blue Socket Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Chaos Damage per White Socket Minions have (5-10)% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - those can grant you almost as much Damage as Triad Grips, but also provide valuable defense and Attributes, making it a much better choice for later stages of the game.

Min. requirements: +80 to maximum Life +60% to Elemental and Chaos Resistance 10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage Optional affixes: Minions deal #% increased Damage (Prefix and Exarch) % chance to Suppress Spell Damage (Suffix and Eater) Attributes

(Belt) Darkness Enthroned - this Belt grants you one additional Abyssal Socket over the usual Stygian Vise Belt, but also can nearly double their effects. Socket your most powerful Jewels here.

Has 2 Abyssal Socket (50-100)% increased Effect of Socketed Abyss Jewels

(Boots) Rare Boots - a purely defensive piece. Look for maximum Life, Movement Speed, and Spell Suppression. Other than that, try to get as much Resistance as possible.

Min. requirements: +100 to maximum Life +80% to Elemental and Chaos Resistance 10% chance to Suppress Spell Damage Optional affixes: Action Speed

(Ring) Rare Ring - your Rings can grant tons of Damage and Attack Speed for your Minions, but getting enough Resistance or Attributes for yourself can become expensive very quickly.

Min. requirements: +70 to maximum Life Minions deal 30% increased Damage Optional affixes: Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed Grants level 30 Aspect of the Spider Resistance Attribute

(Jewel) Rare Abyss Jewels - those Jewels can add a massive amount of Damage for your Minions, but you also need some utility. Those modifiers can be dispersed across multiple Jewels, as you will use multiple of them. You will need maximum Life, a chance for your Minions to inflict Blind and Taunt, Accuracy, and lastly Added Elemental Damage and Attack Speed.

Recommended affixes: +# to maximum Life Minions have #% chance to Taunt on Hit with Attacks Minions have #% chance to Blind on Hit with Attacks Minions have +# to Accuracy Rating Minions deal # to # additional Cold/Lightning/Fire Damage Minions have #% increased Attack Speed

(Jewel) Forbidden Flame/Flesh - the Elemental Relics cast a free Anger, Wrath, and Hatred Aura which are very beneficial for your Animated Weapons and allow you to use defensive Auras instead. It is not mandatory, but you should definitely get it at some point.

Allocates Unwavering Crusade if you have the matching modifier on Forbidden Flame/Flesh

(Jewel) Fortress Covenant - this Jewel grants plenty of Damage and Block Chance for your Minions. You can avoid the downside by socketing it in the Cluster Jewel.

Minions deal (35-45)% increased Damage Minions have +(10-12)% Chance to Block Attack Damage Minions have +(10-12)% Chance to Block Spell Damage Notable Passive Skills in Radius are Transformed to instead grant: Minions take 20% increased Damage

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - the regular Notables for Minions are decent and provide some Damage, Leech, and Crit Multiplier for your Minions. Later on, you should replace it with a Jewel that boosts the effect of small Notables that also provide Attack Speed for Minions and some Life or Resistance for you.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Renewal 1 Added Passive Skill is Vicious Bite Added Small Passive Skills have #% increased Effect Added Small Passive Skills also grant: Minions have 3% increased Attack and Cast Speed Added Small Passive Skills also grant: +# to Dexterity/Resistance Added Small Passive Skills also grant: +# to Maximum Life

Other suggested Flasks: Life Flask with Bleeding Removal Life Flask with healing for Minions Jade Flask with Evasion Rating bonus Quicksilver Flask with Curse Effect Reduction Quartz Flask with Stun Avoidance bonus

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.