[0.5] PhazePlays MINION CULL WARPER: The Fastest Minion Mapper in PoE2 — 400% Culling Threshold

PhazePlays Minion Cull WARPER Witchhunter Build Guide for 0.5!

This build can farm all content in the game, including full monster effectiveness juiced 200% Delirium maps

Rapidly Lightning Warp through maps and kill everything you or your minions touch! With Witchhunter's Zealous Inquisition, enemy explosions further elevate map clear. Runic Ward fuels the new Wardbound Minions minions for enormous damage. Repulsion,Living Lightning II, and Verisium Manifestations automatically loop for an Autobomber playstyle!

This unique minion build has 400%+ culling strike threshold while mapping through Horror's Flight and Myris Uxor. This means any normal or magic monster can be warped to, even at full life, culling everything in a large area!

• Lightning Warp is the bread-and-butter for mapping. It handles both mobility and clear!
• Repulsion + Blasphemy sends out shockwaves when you or your minions hit anything, culling enemies, and spawns Living Lightning II and Verisium Manifestations
• Wardbound Minions provides a huge chunk of burst damage for bosses and rares!
• Up to 4000+ Sorcery Ward barrier — 6000+ with Mageblood

This build is incredibly fun to play and shreds maps with unparalleled speed among minion builds!

Check the changelog at the bottom to see what's changed!

Snapshot of my Current Character

(Expensive) Disciple of Varashta Version HERE

Mapping

Lightning Warp handles the vast majority of mapping as it combines map clear and mobility in 1-button

• Scan your screen for Blue Orbs overlaying monsters as you move to find your next Lightning Warp destination
• Continuously chain Lightning Warp to kill packs of monsters and travel through the map (it has no cooldown, a very short cast time, costs no mana with Soul Drain, and has no noticeable range limit)
• Rare Enemies:
• • Cast Wardbound Minions then Frost Bomb. If needed, add Elemental Weakness in to the mix
  • Try to keep the Rare enemy inside of your Blasphemy Repulsion radius until it gets culled

BUG PSA: It seems that when your character levels up, Blasphemy + Repulsion will stop working until you toggle it off and then back on

Bossing

1. Maintain Elemental Weakness and Frost Bomb exposure
2. Cast Wardbound Minions in a spot where they'll take minimal damage

Optional: Swap in a +2 Minion Level Helmet with high evasion for difficult pinnacle bosses

Culling Strike Threshold

400%+ threshold is required to Lightning Warp to Magic enemies that are at full life. Mapping won't be super comfortable until you hit this number

• 115%+ Myris Uxor (Corrupted)
• 200% Horror's Flight — Must have the Raven-Touched line
• 20% Hunting Companion Glove Annoint (Guilt / Envy / Ire)
• 25% Bounty Hunter Amulet Annoint (Despair / Suffering / Guilt)
• 25% Heart of the Well The roll range is (15—25)%
• 20% Culling Strike II linked to Repulsion

Total: ~405% Culling Strike Threshold

• Normal & Magic monsters die instantly
• Rare monsters die around 50% Life
• Unique monsters die around 25% Life

Ascendancy Order

1. Pitiless Killer
2. Zealous Inquisition
3. Obsessive Rituals
4. Ceremonial Ablution

Runic Ward

• The Runic Ward needed to fuel Wardbound Minions comes from:
• • Runeforged Tasalian Focus with +2 Minion Levels and Cast Speed. Optional: use a Sovereign Alloy to apply the (24—30)% increased Runic Ward prefix
  • Runeforged Cavalry Boots

Tips for sustaining Runic Ward:

• Warding Rune of Nourishment in the Focus can be a good source of on-demand Runic Ward, though your Life Flask must have an Instant Recovery mod for this to work at full life
• Remnants of Kalguur makes sustaining Runic Ward much easier while mapping
• Another option is to briefly stand out of range of the boss to avoid Repulsion triggering so you can regenerate Ward
• For pinnacle bosses, consider disabling Verisium Manifestations and/or Blasphemy to avoid Runic Ward drain

Sorcery Ward Scaling

This build can reach 4000+ Sorcery Ward, here are some things look for to scale it:

• Passive Tree: There are at least 14 passive points to take near the start of Witchhunter: Battle-hardened, Feel no Pain, and Backup Plan. 12% armour/evasion nodes are worth clicking too
• Make sure all of your gear is 20% quality
• Body Armour:
• • Morior Invictus (check Gear Notes section for ideal mods)
  • (9—12)% increased Global Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield per Socket filled
  • 1x Rune of Foundations, the rest Perfect Iron Rune
• Amulet:
• • Up to 50% increased Evasion (Prefix)
  • Perfect Essence of Enhancement: (20—30)% increased Global Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield (Prefix)
  • If your Amulet has Defense mods, and isn't aiming for +4 minion levels, consider using Carapace Catalysts for quality
• Belt: Plate Belt — up to +351 Armour (Prefix)
• Boots: Ideal Prefixes are 35% Movement Speed, Life, and a %Evasion or Flat Evasion roll
• Jewels:
• • (10-20)% increased Evasion on Diamond jewels
  • Desecrated Prefix: (5—10)% increased Evasion Rating / Minions deal (4—8)% increased Damage
• Rings: up to +233 Evasion (Prefix)
• Heart of the Well:
• • (40—60)% increased Evasion Rating from Equipped Body Armour
  • (40—60)% increased Armour from Equipped Body Armour
• Qimah Quest Reward: 15% increased Global Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield
• Other Options:
• • Path to the bottom middle jewel socket and grab Afterimage and Defiance
  • Passive tree wheel with Saqawal's Hide and Saqawal's Talon

Take a look at My Character for an example of a defensive setup

Spectres

• Powered Zealots — these cost 55 Spirit when getting them with Bind Spectre
• Zone: Etched Ravine in Interlude 3 of the campaign
• There are multiple variants of Powered Zealots, make sure yours casts Spark!

Alternative Setup: Varashta

Disciple of Varashta is a solid alternative option for this build but it's quite expensive!

• Aldur's Legacy + Deathblow
• Put Legacy of Deathblow into Horror's Flight (Raven-Touched mod is required)
• Palm of the Dreamer in Weapon Set 1
• • Assign Lightning Warp
• A +4 Rare Sceptre in Weapon Set 2
• • All other spells assigned to Weapon Set 2
• Delete Rares and Bosses with Kelari's Deception

Varashta Version HERE

Endgame Additions

• Wardbound Minions: Add Vorana's Siege
• Remnants of Kalguur: Add Khatal's Rejuvenation (costs extra Spirit)
• Megalomaniac: Hunting Companion or Bounty Hunter with any other decent 2nd mod. Then annoint Horror's Flight with Zarokh's Gift (Melancholy / Ferocity / Contempt) for an extra jewel socket
• Bind Spectre: Replace Lightning Attunement with Dialla's Desire (+1 level, 5% more damage from quality, 90% Spirit reservation multiplier)
• • This is particularly good if it lets you fit in another Spectre
• Rite of Passage
• • Spirit of the Ox is the most currency-efficient
  • Spirit of the Stag is the best if currency is irrelevant
• Sorcery Ward: Add Uhtred's Omen
• Corrupted 5-socket Morior Invictus
• Optional: Legacy of Trampletoe in boots
• Mageblood > Headhunter for this build
• • Ideal Mageblood flasks: Quicksilver > Jade > Bismuth. The 4th should be a duplicate of any one of these 3 mods. Granite is also an option instead of Bismuth for an even bigger Sorcery Ward

FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions

• Why can't I reserve these auras on my Sceptre?
• • Must run a Purity Sceptre (any variant of Shrine Sceptre) to get free auras
• How many Skeletal Cleric? 1 or 2
• How do I Level?
• • Twister + Level 1 Whirling Slash + Skysliver + Wake of Destruction + Flat elemental to Attacks on gear.
  • Whirling Slash x3 then Twister
  • There are some solid Grenade or Crossbow leveling setups too
• When can I play this build?
• • You can play it entering maps, playing it mostly as a minion-focused build with the ability to Lightning Warp to Normal monsters
  • The build comes fully online at level 84 when you can equip Horror's Flight, and gain the ability to Lightning Warp to Magic monsters
• How many of each minion?
• • 1 or 2 clerics, the rest Spectres
• How do I handle Runic Expedition encounters?
• • Monsters with Runic Ward are unable to be culled, here's the best way to handle these:
  • Maintain 2x Elemental Weakness cursed ground zones in a figure-8 shape, with the Runic Remnant Stone at the center
  • Cast Frost Bomb and Wardbound Minions on cooldown
  • Kite and dodge enemies while staying inside of your Elemental Weakness zones
  • If you're tanky enough to stay inside, this will typically shred even 8+ Remnant encounters
  • Must have Tecrod's Revenge on Spectres and ideally 1 or 2 Skeletal Cleric + Brutus' Brain
• What do I do if my damage sucks?
• • Target +Minion Levels (Up to +4 sceptre, +4 amulet w/ quality, +2 focus, +1 gem corruption, +2 helmet swap for pinnacle bosses)
  • 6-Link Bind Spectre, Wardbound Minions, and Verisium Manifestations
  • Decent Sapphire jewels
  • Try to resist cap Wardbound Minions
  • Wardbound Minions should be supported by Zarokh's Revolt
  • A good Shrine Sceptre (any variant), with +4 and % ally damage
  • Try to stay near your minions for presence damage

Do the above, then press:

1. Frost Bomb
2. Elemental Weakness
3. Wardbound Minions in a safe spot. If you don't have the Runic Ward, use an Instant Life Flask once or twice to generate ward with Warding Rune of Nourishment

Bosses and rares will die — quickly

• June 13
• • Added an Ascendancy Order section
  • Ember Fusillade: changed Mobility to Blind II
  • Changed Body Armour in the main loadout to Morior Invictus, check the Gear Notes section for ideal mods
  • Added a Sorcery Ward Scaling section
  • Added Stripped Defences on the tree
  • Added a Sorcery Ward support gem
  • Verisium Manifestations: changed Last Gasp to Efficiency II. This lowers the runic ward cost of each spawned minion
• June 14
• • Added Uhtred's Omen to Sorcery Ward
  • Changed Skyfall to Wardbound Minions
  • Reworked guide a bit to incorporate Wardbound Minions
  • Noted: only Purity Shrine Sceptre variants (Shrine Sceptre) can reserve support auras for free
• June 15 — Major Build Adjustments
• • Crit dropped entirely from the tree, jewels, and rings. Spark's 7% base crit is too difficult to scale effectively without a source of Critical Weakness
  • Instead, build gained a huge amount of area of effect, a larger Sorcery Ward, multiple jewel slots, and a stronger gem loadout
  • Dropped: Zone of Control, Splintering Force
  • Reworked bottom of the tree, Added: Volatile Catalyst, Saqawal's Hide, Saqawal's Talon, Defiance, Afterimage,Adrenaline Rush, and a jewel socket
  • Be sure to run Wardbound Minions in conjuction with the above changes and use it for single target and rares
  • Verisium Manifestations is dropped temporarily
  • Options to replace Verisium Manifestations: Skeletal Cleric, Wolf Pack with an Amanamu's Tithe setup, or pure Spectres
• June 16 — Build Optimizations: Verisium Manifestations is back
• • Dropped: Raging Spirits, Ember Fusillade, Skeletal Cleric
  • Added: Verisium Manifestations, Remnants of Kalguur, Flame Wall. Flame Wall could also be replaced with something like Skeletal Cleric or Wolf Pack
  • Slight Passive Tree adjustment: Curse wheel swapped to Weapon Set 1 for a larger Elemental Weakness
  • Be sure to assign Elemental Weakness to Weapon Set 1
  • Added new minion belt mod: Surpassing Chance for Minions to fire an additional projectile
  • Changed weapon rune from Warding Rune of Bodyguards to Primate Idol
• June 16
• • Added an optional loadout for a Rakiata's Flow setup
  • A summary of the adjustments made can be found under the Rakiata Setup build tab
• June 18
• • Changed Flame Wall to Skeletal Cleric for simplicity — in particular, Clerics are good for juiced maps to ensure high Spectre uptime. Run 1-2 of them at most if you have the Spirit. Keep running Flame Wall if you'd prefer that instead
  • Wardbound Minions: Replaced Rapid Casting II with Cold Attunement
  • Added more info about the Default Setup vs Rakiata's Flow in the Rakiata tab
  • Added an Endgame Additions section
  • Moved Uhtred's Omen from the Default Setup into the Endgame Additions sections
  • Changed the Runeforged Tasalian Focus rune to Warding Rune of Nourishment for a source of on-demand Runic Ward. Must have an instant recovery mod on your Ultimate Life Flask for this to work at full life
  • Added more info to the Runic Ward section
  • Minor Passive Tree optimizations
  • Added Nascent Hope to the main loadout
• June 23
• • Added What do I do if my damage sucks? to the FAQ
• June 24
• • Added How do I handle Runic Expedition encounters? to the FAQ
• July 4
• • Morior Invictus: Changed 1 Perfect Iron Rune to Fox Idol