S-TIER | BUILD CHASSERESSE HARAMBE ZOO (@Barczi POE2) | SAISON 4

Build Video

Build Overview

The Harambe Zoo is a companions (summoned creatures) build played as Spirit Walker, the Huntress ascendancy of season 0.5. Its concept is as simple as it is devastating: summon a true menagerie of seven different companions that obliterate the screen. Thanks to Minion Splash II, each creature deals area damage and wipes entire packs of monsters in an instant, while the legendary Mighty Silverfist (the monkey) melts most bosses in just a few hits.

All the magic rests on the unique sceptre Sylvans Effigy, a newly introduced piece of equipment. This item grants you an additional Azmerian Wolf, adds damage against marked targets to burst bosses faster, and most importantly it removes the usual limit on the number of different companions you can control at the same time. This is what makes the walking zoo possible.

On the survivability side, the build is extremely comfortable: around 2,500 life, 2,000 Energy Shield, high evasion and near-capped resistances. Combined with your seven companions acting as a wall between you and enemies, you almost never die. The result is a build capable of blasting fully modded T7 maps without even stopping to run.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build offers 1 progression step from leveling to the final build. Select a step to see the corresponding skill gem setup.

Default

Default

6 skills • 23 gemmes

Protecteur sauvageWild Protector

Loup azmérienAzmerian Wolf

Meute de loupsWolf Pack

Marque glacialeFreezing Mark

DisciplineDiscipline

Domptage de bêteTame Beast

Recommended Equipment

This build’s equipment revolves around two key pieces, with the rest mainly stacking life, resistances and minion skill bonuses.

• Weapon (Tyranny’s Grip): this unique weapon is chosen purely for its massive damage, as a portion of the weapon’s damage carries over to creature damage. That is the only thing that matters here.
• Sceptre (Sylvans Effigy): the centrepiece. It grants an additional Azmerian Wolf, adds damage against marked targets to kill bosses faster, and most importantly removes the limit on the number of different companions.
• Helmet: the absolute priority is +2 to minion skills, then life and resistances.
• Body armour: look for high Energy Shield, good evasion, plenty of life and resistances.
• Amulet: +3 to minion skills, life and Energy Shield.
• Ring 1: creature critical chance, creature critical damage and life. Ideally add creature attack speed (usually too expensive early on).
• Ring 2: simply life and resistances.
• Belt, gloves, boots: life and resistances to round out your defences.

Companions and Marks Setup

The heart of the build is your seven companions, each equipped with their own support gems and carrying a useful aura. Here is the optimal composition described by the author:

• Quadrilla (Hinder aura, slows nearby enemies): Rage, Minion Splash II, Muster, Feeding Frenzy, Hulking Minions.
• Antlion Charger (Haste aura): Loyalty, Muster, Rage.
• Carvester (extra physical damage aura): Minion Splash II, Rage, Muster, Feeding Frenzy, Rapid Attacks.
• Mighty Silverfist (the monkey, unique boss-killer companion): Muster, Rage, Feeding Frenzy, Hulking Minions, Rapid Attacks. You can capture it with modifiers — prioritize anything related to critical strikes.
• Azmerian Wolf (granted by the Sylvans Effigy): Bidding, Muster, Rapid Attacks, Rage.
• Wild Protector: Muster, Rapid Attacks, Feeding Frenzy, Hulking Minions, Rage.
• Wolf Pack: Hulking Minions, Feeding Frenzy, Muster, Rage, Minion Splash II.

To add sceptre damage, we use Freezing Mark (any mark works) with Prolonged Duration, Mark for Death and Charged Mark. The priority auras on your minions are Haste, extra physical damage aura and Hinder.

Where to Find and Capture Companions

The capture phase is the most technical step of the build. Essential tip: place all your minions on weapon set 1 (only one slot checked). By swapping weapon sets, you unsummon your beasts, which makes farming much easier. Note that the bear cannot be unsummoned: you will need to temporarily remove the corresponding passives to farm more efficiently, then re-allocate them afterward.

• Beast camps: the best spots are the trouble camps in Infested Barren and Jungle Ruins. Jungle Ruins in particular is home to the Quadrilla.
• Rerolling modifiers: check the beast’s modifiers, then use the respawn at checkpoint to reset the camp until you get the right mods.
• Map capture: in a map, when you come across a pack of rare monsters with beasts, unsummon your own minions, check the modifiers, and capture the new beast before resummoning.

Passive Skill Tree

The passive tree is entirely focused on minions and reservation efficiency, which is essential to support an army of seven companions.

• Mandatory companion nodes: the bear node, added attack damage to minions equal to 60% of your main weapon, and the node that allows you to capture unique beasts.
• Reservation efficiency: the node that increases minion reservation efficiency is crucial — it allows you to add one more beast. Another node increases minion damage and reservation efficiency per equipped idol, and you carry a lot of them.
• Critical nodes: critical strike chance, critical strike bonus damage, 10% of physical damage converted to chaos damage, and a node granting 40% critical strike chance.
• Defensive nodes: energy shield and energy shield per evasion rating on your body armour.
• Unique jewel: a unique jewel (around 1 divine) allows you to allocate nodes at a distance, saving a significant number of passive points.

Jewel Optimization

Jewels are the main Leverage for skyrocketing your minions’ damage and survivability. The two most important stats to look for are minion critical hit chance and minion critical damage — all your jewels should carry at least one of them.

• Minion crits: critical hit chance and critical damage bonus on as many jewels as possible.
• Minion resistances: chaos resistance, elemental resistances, to cap your companions’ defenses.
• Additional offense: increased minion damage, minion attack and cast speed.
• Budget unique jewel: it lets you place nodes outside your standard allocation, freeing up many points for roughly 1 divine only.

Gameplay Tips

• Mark before striking: apply Freezing Mark (or your preferred mark) on bosses to trigger the bonus damage from Sylvans Effigy before engaging.
• Let the Silverfist do the work on bosses: it is designed to take them down in a few hits, so position it well.
• Capture a Mighty Silverfist with critical mods as soon as possible: it is the biggest boss damage upgrade in the build.
• Keep your minions on weapon set 1 so you can quickly unsummon them when farming new beasts.
• Make the most of your idols: each equipped idol increases your minion damage and reservation efficiency — don’t overlook any of them.

Skill Tree