Absolution

Let's get it out of the way, Absolution will be one of the best minion build league starters.

If you decided Absolution is your minion build starter, I will make a list of what I consider good tips and tricks to the build. I have been playing way too much absolution, I played it to 90+ in two gauntlets, having 10+ 95 characters in HC and 3 chars above 98.

Problem: The skill is feeling clunky, having trouble spawning minions in the start of maps and on boss fights.

Tips: There will always be a bigger clunkiness compared to permanent minions like zombies, golems and spectres. You can swap a damage support gem for faster casting, it is not a large damage decrease. Having faster casting makes using spell echo a lot more tolerable.

Have secondary minions deal enough damage to kill white mobs. The secondary minions (zombies, golem, spectres, AG) killing the white mobs for you make spawning sentinels a lot better in the start of a map or a boss encounter that spawns minions (10ways etc)

writhin Jar, if you can get the timing right so that your secondary minions do not kill the worms before you cast absolution on them. But it is a duct tape fix at best, but worth a shot trying to spawn the minions for boss fights or start of maps. Remember getting the gloves that makes all kills count as your kill do not work.

Always have increased minion duration, you get a lot from enduring bond passives and necro mistress of sacrifice. Going out of your way to get more duration is generally not worth it, example duration mastery.

10 quick league start tips

1. Absolution got a lot of tags; aoe, phys, lightning, minion, duration. You can get an easy +1 early on getting +1 to lighting or 1+ to phys wands. You can also get cold iron point, but the price fluctuates a lot early on, but it is not a tier 1 unique. Remember a staff is an option.
2. Elder helmet / Shaper gloves got good options for early psuedo 6-links, and endgame crafting for ultimate 7.5 links when you are rich.
3. Summon phantasms linked with your absolution and the minions recover 5% of life on death from minion defence mastery can make your minions survive a lot easier.
4. Convocation is king, get it at 28, I recommend getting the 40% convocation cd recovery from minion defence if you do not have the 5% of life on death.
5. Early on minions shine, because you can have permanent minions + absolution. Try running vaal skeletons/zombies on a 3-4 link along with your absolution for levelling.
6. Unholy might on kill offence mastery and minion AoE nodes can help with clear, but not good for bosses.
7. Early spectres, get frenzy charge generation early on, summon phantasms + 5% recovery on kill should keep them alive.
8. No carrion golem, drop it for stone golem or chaos golem.
9. You can go crit once you get access to power generating spectres. Crit is king, especially if you get a kingmaker.
10. Hatred for aura, hard to beat. But wrath/zealotry is similar in some cases.

Animate guardian

Your AG can make your build a lot better, there are plenty of guides on how to gear your animate guardian. Cheaper options include Leer cast, dying breath and vicario's flight. Expensive options include kingmaker, Garb of Ephemeral and crown of the tyrant.

My tip focus around getting +1/2 curses on your AG, you can get curses on hit with glove corruptions. If you do not use fleshcrafter, then elemental weakness curse is good. You get this by getting windscream boots/ hunter +1 curse chest + elemental curse on hit (corrupted imp). AG will have an extra curse, so you can curse the target and your AG can.

Spectres

Host chieftain is mandatory for crit builds.

Carnage chieftain is mandatory for builds in general.

Arena master is a really good third option, the increased cast speed will make spell echo less clunky.

Rhex from harvest, has a lightning debuff.

A lot of cold damage, primal crushclaw has a cold debuff.

I believe spell echo makes the chieftains cast their charge generation spell twice, and it no longer needs blood magic.

Mana

A 6-linked absolution does cost a lot of mana, in the ballpark of 90-120 mana per cast. If I got my rings with an open prefix, I like the mana + mana regen craft. Also enduring mana flask is a given, but you can run out on bosses.

With decent duration your absolution sentinels do last a while, so convocating them around saves cast.

Convenant chest piece can make your absolution cost only life, and negate the mana cost completely. You also get a tiny dps increase from chaos support level 15. But endgame other chests will be much better for dps or defense.

You can use a heist staff base that gives ES + socketed gems use energy shield before mana. For very late game you do want to roll either a good shaper gloves or elder/shaper helmet, keep in mind this is very expensive to craft properly.

Do not shy away from getting reduced cost on skills like tireless cluster on the tree, getting dreamer annointed or -cost on skill craft on rings.

Empowered Absolution

Sentinels cast an empowered absolution on a 6-second CD, and even if I have played absolution for hundreds of hours, I still do not know.

Deals 2017 to 3025 Physical Damage

absolution blast shockwave every x beams [1] "Mark needed, BEX or someone bring in the man, the legend" is area damage

spell maximum action distance +% [-50]

Since spell echo makes them cast double, I can assume they cast it twice on CD with spell echo. That makes spell echo a stronger support than it shows in PoB, but casting twice will make the build clunky without a lot of cast speed.

From what I could tell it does cast an empowered absolution that does several less powerful absolution spells in a sequence. This need clarification, and if anyone in the community knows, make a reply.

This is why getting alt q on Absolution for a CD reduction on this ability, minion speed alt q and faster casting alt q. All of those got CD reduction versions, this is especially powerful. The new neck with +1 all skills and quality is an insane amulet for endgame.

It could also just be a bigger absolution in radius, but lower damage. And all the CD reduction scaling is just a bait when trying to get more damage.

PoB for league start

https://pastebin.com/sJFSzMKX - Here is a staff build with pretty low gear, and level 85. + level skills to staffs seems to be cheaper than wands/weapons early on. You can also path down from templar start, and get gravepact.

PoB for league start - SC version

https://pastebin.com/JMrqDTTy - Using the convenant chest as a starter, solves mana and is usually cheap. The build is pretty damn tanky still, so it is not a glass canon SC build, but who likes dying am I right? You can use this build to progress into getting -lightning res gear, prototype and all the other gear required for doryani's version for endgame.

PoB for league start - SC/HC version

https://pastebin.com/fDqZ2Xg3 - The kripp/Xai take on absolution, it is a solid tree and gear recommendation for the build. The endgame take on using a brittle on block shield with necro aegis for more base crit is interesting too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ajQP-ty4lI&ab_channel=Zizaran

Zizaran added a small video showing the build, you can mix and match ideas from many build creators.

PoB for unkillable HC version

https://pastebin.com/uFMAAv5P - Only for HC, template for endgame build to make the build very very tanky. Not newbie friendly

Youtube video from Balaar on levelling with absolution

https://youtu.be/kJNy4fCw9Yk - helpful levelling video that is using HoP and Absolution. No explaining, just quiet gameplay, but you can see what he/she is doing. At 3 hrs and 43 minutes, it is a very respectable time. Keep in mind you won't reach this unless you are an experienced player.