Ended up trying both Necromancer minion variations and the Bone one came out on top. There’s just too little synergy between Overpower and the other minions to recommend using the Blood Lance version (that it would be useless post-season also played a role).
Bone Minion Necro
- Abilities
- Rank 1 Enhanced Reap, Dreadful Bone Prison, & Plagued Corpse Tendrils
- Rank 5 Paranormal Bone Spear, Abhorant Decrepify, & Supreme Bone Storm
- Rank 1 Hewed Flesh, Grim Harvest, Necrotic Carapace, & Kalan’s Edict
- Rank 2 Necrotic Fortitude
- Rank 3 Fueled By Death, Titan’s Fall, Skeleton Warrior Mastery, Amplify Damage, Death’s Embrace, Death’s Approach, Skeletal Mage Mastery
Coalesced Blood, Golem Mastery, Finality, Inspiring Leader, & Hellbent Commander
- Paragon
- Gravekeeper, Cult Leader/Deadraiser, Hulking Monstrosity/Warrior, Scent of Death/Golem, Bone Graft/Mage
- Minions: Skirmishers 2, Bone Mages 1, Bone Golem 2
- Mercenaries: Rahier (Resistances) & Any
- Seasonal Powers: Alter the Balance, Grim Reapers, Unstable Power, Crazy Brew
- Equipment
- Chaos Ring of Mendeln Head (NeoOhm), Hardened Bones Chest (Topaz), Grasping Veins Gloves, Blood Moon Breeches (Topaz), Chaos Lidless Wall Boots, Reanimation 2H Scythe (NaguVex), Occult Dominion Necklace (Skull), Conceited & Damned Rings (Diamond)
Main issues are that getting the minions to target what you want them to is incredibly difficult (although Corpse Tendrils with the extended area Temper helps with that), and having to constantly replenish the supply of Skeleton Mages is annoying.
Post-season changes would be to replace the head with Occult Dominion, the boots with Metamorphosis, the weapon with a 1H Vehement Brawler scythe and Lidless Wall, the conceited ring with a Ring of Mendeln, and swap the amulet affix to Reanimation. Also, the chest slot is meant to be a Shroud of False Death, but I’m currently both 1 rune and 1 Spark short.
After that build was finalized I moved on toward making a new Barbarian in the mold of that Deathblow one, which turned out more fun to play.
Arsenal Barbarian
- Abilities
- Rank 1 Combat Frenzy, Strategic Rallying Cry, Fighter’s Rupture (2H Slash), Fighter’s Mighty Throw (2H Blunt)
- Rank 5 Violent Double Swing, Power War Cry, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
- Rank 1 Pressure Point, Raid Leader, Thick Skin, Concussion, & Unbridled Rage
- Rank 3 Warpath, Imposing Presence, Martial Vigor, Guttural Yell, Aggressive Resistance, Pit Fighter, Slaying Strike, Defensive Stance, Counteroffensive, Wallop, Invigorating Fury
- Paragon
- Dominate, Decimator/Ambidextrous, Blood Rage/Ire, Bone Breaker/Crusher, Carnage/Seething
- Expertise: 2H Axe
- Mercenaries: Raheir (Slow, Iron Wolf’s Call) & Varyana (Whirlwind)
- Seasonal Powers: A Beast Cornered, Accelerating Chaos, Deafening Chorus, Marred Guard
- Equipment
- Harlequin Crest Head (Ruby), Chaos Battle Trance Chest (Ruby), Twin Strikes Gloves, Undying Pants (Ruby), Yen’s Blessing Boots, Limitless Rage 2H Blunt (IgniWat), Vehement Brawler’s 1H Mace & Sabre of Tsasgal (Sapphire), Fields of Crimson 2H Slash (TamVex), Edgemaster’s Amulet (Diamond), Starlight & Vocalized Empowerment Rings (Diamond)
Now, you may notice this build does not actually use Walking Arsenal. It meant too, but Unbridled Rage just ended up flat-out better with the benefits of A Beast Cornered. Gameplay is simple yet engaging; Wrath -> Mighty Throw -> Rupture -> spam Double Swing. It slices things up nicely and doesn’t have any notable survivability problems thanks to the barrier and life gain.
Post-season changes would be to swap in a Deflecting Barrier chestpiece and Unbridled Rage for Walking Arsenal, then switch Rupture to Fighter’s and reduce Frenzy to Enhanced while getting rid of Raid Leader to put two points in Booming Voice. Might also have to swap out the +Skill runeword for a +Resources runeword since the Shouts won’t have constant uptime.