Current day PoB Link (No idea if settings are accurate and I doubt Reapers spam Ultimate since I see Whirl/Comboslashes) - https://pobb.in/3pbes1rp0Ci6

Basic non-juiced T16 Mapping & 1st/2nd Secrets of the Atlas Bosses - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFupSQhbMuM

Pre-League Planning - No idea how to go about making a tree or what to aim for so made myself a little spreadsheet of stats and sources to help myself organize. I had chosen Reaper of Revenants after the initial reveal of them getting +1 minion count (only for us to later find out it's +2 at level 25 for 5 Reapers!). I specifically wanted to not build around poison minions, or stacking a bunch of minion damage from clusters because of lower minion count so just went with a generic physical build. I also planned to try and find ways to automate her consume buff since presumably the 2 versions of it stack making her very big and fast.

https://preview.redd.it/58r76zbrbe8f1.png?width=1267&format=png&auto=webp&s=302d70b3653a2cbd524ae3464dd503610226aea1

Day 1 - Campaign, started SRS/Phantasms into regular Reaper/Skeletons/Phantasms. Blindly pathed to each minion damage/defense node on the tree. Buttery smooth no issues, Mercenaries dropped various rare gear and minion wands for easy upgrades and resistances. Mindless Aggression -> Commander of Darkness -> Plague Bringer was my Ascendancy progression. Reaper's aimed dash/ultimate cleared campaign packs just fine, skeletons/phantasms kept her fed and helped with some single target. Swapped to Reaper of Revenants in Act 9 and they melted Kitava phases in seconds.

Day 2 - Early Maps, res still capped while chaos was negative but just trucked on without much issues in White Maps. Yellow maps basic mobs started slowing down and damage was lacking so I started making some upgrades and went with Ancient Skull helmet and 2 minion wands doing away with my already non-existent defenses in a shield with minimal block chance. Minion Area of Effect was definitely a premier stat that made mapping smoother and the more I got, the more I was gaining confidence that this build was going to turn out alright. Quest Infinite Hunger proved uneventful as it died in <30sec, while Black Star split my dps considerably which initially revealed the glaring weakness of not being able to control my minions.

Day 3 - Starting Red Maps. Minor damage upgrades were running dry and saving up for a 1Div Dragonfang was all I needed. Started running into multiple bulky rares and invulnerable mobs/bosses which further exasperate the spread out DPS issues the build had with Ancient Skull. The single target was fine, though. Ravenous Horde for 6sp at the top of the tree I was back and forth with, but after much feeling it out I deemed it worth keeping because faster Reapers means smoother mapping. Meat Shield support seemed to not do well with Ancient Skull because the minion targeting area was still shortened while under Whispers so often time they stood around doing nothing instead of the usual running off screen clearing things.

Day 4 - Two Voidstones. Started pivoting over into investing into Crit, saved up for a Maata's Teachings Sceptre, and using Spirit Offering over Flesh Offering. Ancient Skull degen was starting to kill them because of more crit uptime while taking damage, so invested in their Chaos Res for a little bit. Still had no Armour or physical mitigation or Chaos Res myself so I played careful for the most part. About 130c, 3Div spent so far.

Day 6-8 - T14 Red Maps. Still floating around here experimenting with different links and taking things slowly to finish the new storyline for Secrets of the Atlas. The bosses were super bulky. Eventually afforded to switch to a Queen's Hunger/Leash of Oblation setup for triple offering (more like 2.8 with current duration) and cyclone to automate Desecrate and Summon Skeletons to keep things healthy with minion on death healing. Stuck to basic harvest every map to convert juice to chaos to make incremental upgrades. Dark Marionettes now replaced skeletons as reaper food and this is when I got the 5th reaper which ruined the 1:1 ratio to spectres for me. About 9Div spent so far.

Day 9 - Four Voidstones, Alch and go T16 Mapping. Started affording the more expensive upgrades in Grand Spectrums, Large Cluster, and other Rare Gear to shore up some semblance of defenses. The build has stopped experimenting and now saving up for the most expensive part of my planned progression. It turned from getting dragged around by reapers dashing off screen to me being a cyclone build frostblinking into packs alongside them. I made the switch to using a Dark Monarch helmet to double the reapers to 10 and disabling the support minions. PoB suggested the damage was slightly less even with losing Feeding Frenzy, Maim, and Reaper Consume, but mapping was now considerably smoother even with less minion AoE and the dash/whirl cooldowns being more spread out. About 20Div spent so far.

The pivot into Dark Monarch happened super late and I'm loving it so far, but now I have a lot of gemlinks that aren't being used by Spectres anymore and seeing what I can do. I will take this build farther and do a future showcase video of bossing and testing the build's limits before I move on later. I'm using a Determination/Endurance Charges Mercenary to shore up my physical defenses slightly. Still figuring out ways to keep ES topped off as a hybrid Life/ES build. Also, -50% light radius is terrible for indoor maps with everything so dark, I can't enjoy seeing my reapers dash around like this. Is the build weak for its cost? Probably.