Starter Summon Amazon - Decoys and Valks

Viability / Purpose of the Build

Pretty much the easiest Amazon season starter that can farm almost anything and do Uber Tristram easily. If you take it a step further, it can even do Diablo Clone.

Watch the Season Start video - Nothing in this video has changed for S12

Watch the Uber Tristram Video - Nothing in this video has changed for S12

Watch the Diablo Clone video - S12 T0 DClone is harder and requires a bit more gear, still possible though. The basics are the still the same.

Skills

See picture for skills, basically max out Decoys, Valks, Penetrate and Strafe, in this order. Decoys benefit the most from AR early game, so max Penetrate before Strafe.
Leveling up more you put 10 points into Critical Strike and the rest into Pierce.

Attributes

Get as much str/dex as you need for gear, the rest into vitality. For instance get 115str the Valkyrie Wing Helm if you wish to use that. Decoys and Valks have a pretty high mana cost, if you are struggling with mana put points into energy.

Gear

For summons its basically all about the +skills so get as many as you can. Also try to get a decent amount of FCR, try to get 32 or 48 FCR. Season 12 added FCR on Large Charms, use these to get the needed FCR breakpoints early.

Early Game Gear

Get a decent amount of faster cast, this guide is focused more on being full summons, so you will be recasting them a lot to position. Get a +3 amulet and +3 pair of gloves asap. Gloves preferably have FCR on them. Other options here are Lore, Peace and a Rhyme / Splendor. For weapon you can go [[Spirit (Weapon)}Spirit Swords]] or Neophyte.

Check out THIS LINK for the early game skills and gear. Best slams are sockets and +1 all skills where possible.

Mid Game Gear

The best damage increase for your Decoys is the Passion runeword. If gives you level 8 charges of Heart of Wolverine. Level 8 is a 95% damage increase for Decoys.
It can be made in any regulare/white socketed weapon, for pure summon make this runeword in anything with low str/dex requirements.

If you really want to strafe, make this a Passion crossbow. Be on the look out for a Vipermagi, Lidless, Valk Helm and ofcourse Passive and Magic grandcharms.

Check out THIS LINK for the mid game skills and gear. Best slams are sockets and +1 all skills where possible.

End Game Gear

Taking the Decoy damage a step further can be done by upgrade the Passion into an Oath runeword. Oath has charges for a level 16 Heart of Wolverine. Level 16 is a 175% damage increase for Decoys.
Gear focus should be +skills and FCR, so a random Arachnid Mesh would be a good choice. You could go fir +skill rings, but I don't think it worth it. Use them if you have them though.

Check out THIS LINK for the end game skills and gear. Best slams are sockets and +1 all skills where possible.

Mercenary

For merc get an A4 Dark with Amplify Damage or an A1 Fire with Vigor with a Witchwild String.
For an even bigger damage increase on your decoys use an A5 Might mercenary and give him a Vile Husk.

Check the links to gear and skills for the mercenary gear.

Leveling

Standard Amazon leveling, use Power Strike until 27-30 then respec into Decoy/Valks. Basically finish Normal difficulty with Power Strike and swap to Decoys/Valks when you hit Nightmare.

Farming

Summon Amazon can basically farm anything, Pit, Arcane Sanctuary, Travincal, Chaos Sanctuary and Shenk, Eldritch and Pindle. With midgame gear you can also easily do Uber Tristram for your own Torch.
You CAN kill Diablo Clone with it to get your own Annihilus, but it might require some practice. Uber Ancients is also a good spot, just keep resummoning your Decoys/Valks and keep your mercenary alive.

Patch Notes/Changelog

Updated for Season 12
Created for Season 11

Acknowledgments

TDL with Bubbles, LemonGrenade and many Discord friends.