POE: The Hidden Struggles of Summoners-Why Spectres and Animate Guardian
The good news? POE's quality-of-life changes make raising Spectres easier, cleaner, and far less punishing. The bad news? If you're still in POE, it's easy to accidentally delete expensive minions, lose progress, make more POE currency or misclick your way into chaos. Let's break down exactly what makes POE's system a blessing-and why POE summoners still need a full checklist just to stay sane.
Spectres in Path of Exile-Streamlined and Smart
In Path of Exile, the Spectre system is finally modernized. You start by acquiring the Raise Spectre skill gem, as usual-but this time, the process of selecting your minions is intuitive.
When you kill enemies, you can simply open the gem interface and see a full list of potential Spectres, complete with their names, abilities, and stats. You'll see the spirit cost, the unit's abilities, and even how quality affects damage. It's a transparent and streamlined process that lets players make informed decisions.
Want to summon a Lost Man Brute or a Frostbound Seer? You simply click their name, bind them to your gem, and summon away. You can even inspect your Spectre's performance stats directly from the gem menu-something POE players could only dream of.
Best of all, if you want to switch Spectres, you just disenchant the gem, returning it to its base Raise Spectre form. There's no corpse-hunting, no gem-swapping, and no "oops I consumed my perfect minion" moments. It's one of the cleanest summoner systems ever implemented in an ARPG.
GassyTV summed it up perfectly: "It's very straightforward, very simple, and very comfortable." For long-time necromancer fans, Path of Exile feels like a total rebirth.
Spectres in Path of Exile-Complexity, Chaos, and Corpses
Now let's talk about the Path of Exile version-the system many players still use every day.
In POE, the Raise Spectre gem gives you almost no information. It doesn't show which monsters are available, what they do, or how powerful they are. The tooltip only mentions accuracy, movement speed, and resistances-none of which helps you choose your army.
Instead, summoners must rely on Desecrate, a skill that spawns random corpses on the ground. The corpses generated depend on what monsters exist in the area-or, if you've previously summoned certain monsters, they get added to your personal Desecrate table (up to ten).
To find your desired Spectre, you have to hold down the "A" key to view corpse names, hover over the right one (say, "Arena Master" or "Pale Seraphim"), and then click your Raise Spectre gem. Get it wrong, and you'll summon the wrong unit-or worse, waste valuable corpses.
That's only the start of the chaos.
Spell Echo, Trigger Weapons, and the Minion Summoner's Curse
In POE, minion builds often use Spell Echo to double-cast Raise Spectre. Unfortunately, this also means you might accidentally summon two of the same minion when you only wanted one. To avoid this, players must remove Spell Echo every time they summon.
The same goes for trigger weapons-crafted items that automatically cast linked spells when you use another skill. These usually include Desecrate and Bone Offering, which cycle every few seconds.
Here's the nightmare scenario:
You're trying to summon your perfect Spectre using Desecrate. You right-click the corpse you've been farming all day… but your trigger weapon automatically casts Bone Offering and consumes the corpse before you can raise it.
Just like that, your expensive Perfect Guardian Turtle or Forest Warrior-which could cost multiple Divine Orbs-is gone.
GassyTV put it bluntly: "It's very frustrating… I've wasted about 10 to 15 Divines this league just from mistakes like this." Even experienced players can fall victim to this, let alone new players just starting out.
How to Avoid the Common Spectre Traps
If you're sticking with Path of Exile, there are several crucial steps to avoid losing your precious minions:
1.Remove Spell Echo from your Raise Spectre setup before summoning.
2.Remove Desecrate and Offering from your trigger weapon-cast them manually instead.
3.Turn off some auras if you lack mana to summon.
4.Use the corpse targeting option in settings so you can see corpse names easily.
5.Summon one Spectre at a time, starting with the one you least mind losing.
6.Avoid weapon swapping mid-map-it can de-level your gem and delete your minions.Once you've summoned your desired Spectres, you can safely re-link Spell Echo, re-enable your trigger weapon, and continue mapping.
Itemized Corpses and Premium Spectres
Some of the most powerful Spectres in POE can't be found in the wild-they come from itemized corpses sold by other players or dropped in special mechanics like Ritual.
Examples include:
Perfect Forest Warrior-Grants Onslaught to allies.
Perfect Guardian Turtle-Provides physical mitigation and a Determination aura.
Losing these corpses by misclicking or having them consumed by an Offering can be devastating. This is why players are so hopeful for the incoming 3.27 changes, which promise that Spectres will persist more reliably even after dying.
Animate Guardian-The Unsung Risk Machine
Then there's the Animate Guardian, another iconic minion that functions like an equipped NPC. It can wear weapons, helmets, gloves, boots, and body armor-but if it dies or you accidentally overwrite an item, that gear is gone forever.
To equip items, players must drop them on the ground and cast Animate Guardian on them. If the Guardian already has a weapon equipped, it's replaced instantly-no warning, no refund.
GassyTV's advice is simple:
"Once you've geared your Animate Guardian, take that skill off your action bar immediately."
This prevents accidental re-equipping during maps, which could delete expensive uniques like Kingmaker or Mask of the Stitched Demon.
You also can't check what gear your Guardian is wearing in-game. There's no interface or tooltip-just the 3D model. The only way to track his stats or gear is through Path of Building.
When your Guardian dies, always resummon him in your hideout, not inside a map. That way, there's no chance of equipping junk items from the ground.
The Gear Check Trap
Another frustrating quirk in POE is how your Spectres are tied to the level of your Raise Spectre gem.
Level 13 → 2 Spectres
Level 25 → 3 Spectres
If you remove gear that grants gem levels (like a +2 minion helmet or a +1 wand), your gem level might drop-instantly killing your oldest Spectre and turning it into a corpse.
Similarly, if you unequip an item that provides required stats (like Strength or Dexterity for linked support gems), your gear can become unusable and your minions disappear.
The safest way to avoid this? Make all major gear and POE orbs changes in town, not your hideout or map. Summons are unsummoned in towns, so nothing can go wrong.
POE-A Bright Future for Summoners
It's easy to see why players are so excited for Path of Exile's new Spectre system. It eliminates nearly every pain point of POE's design:
No corpse targeting.
No trigger weapon interference.
No gem-level Spectre losses.
No accidental overwrite of expensive minions.
Full in-game information on unit stats and scaling.
Summoner mains finally get the transparency and control they've been begging for. Raising Spectres feels intentional and satisfying, not a ritual of anxiety and trial-and-error.
Final Thoughts
GassyTV's breakdown is more than a tutorial-it's a cautionary tale. For veterans, it's a reminder of how intricate and punishing POE can be. For newcomers, it's a survival guide to avoid turning your build into ashes.
But most importantly, it highlights how much Path of Exile is moving toward accessibility without sacrificing depth. For the first time in years, summoners can focus on creativity, not corpse management.