Path of Exile 2 is quietly killing off the old "hit summon, go make tea" Necromancer routine, and you'll feel it fast once you start paying attention to resources like PoE 2 Currency and the stats that actually let your minion plan come online. The fantasy's still there—raising the dead, running a pack—but the rhythm's different. Your power isn't just "more bodies." It's choices, trade-offs, and the kind of prep you usually only bother with for tough bosses.

Spirit Changes Everything

The real pivot is Spirit. Instead of a simple cap on how many skeletons you can have, you're working with a reservation-style budget. Every minion you keep around ties up Spirit, so you're basically drafting a team under a salary cap. That makes Spirit feel like an offensive stat, not a side note. You're not only chasing minion damage anymore; you're hunting the ability to field the lineup you actually want, when you want it.

Build a Squad, Not a Blob

And the lineup matters. There are eight skeletal types, spread across the usual roles: tanks, melee hitters, ranged damage, and casters. So you can stop pretending every fight is the same. Heading into a boss that throws wide, punishing AoE. You'll probably lean into sturdier frontliners and keep your fragile units tucked behind them. Need a faster kill window. People will drop the "safe" picks and stack damage instead. It's not fancy on paper, but in practice it's a big deal, because it lets you respond instead of hoping your swarm lucks out.

AI That Actually Shows Roles

The footage sells it because the minions don't move like identical drones. Tanks commit, take space, and stay in the mess. Ranged units try to keep distance, and casters behave like they know they're not meant to eat hits. That creates this messy-but-readable battlefield where you're nudging a party through danger rather than recasting disposable summons on cooldown. Since these skeletons look semi-permanent, you start thinking about survival, positioning, and recovery, not just button spam.

Planning, Gear Pressure, and Player Habits

What I like most is the pressure it puts on your decisions. Spirit gating means you can't have every tool at once, so you end up theory-crafting around matchups and comfort. Maybe you run casters for debuffs because your melee line needs help sticking to targets. Maybe you go lighter on tanks because you trust your dodging. Either way, you're committing, and that's where gear and trading start to matter more—if you're trying to speed up progression or smooth out early gearing, a lot of players look at marketplaces like U4GM for buying currency or items to hit those Spirit breakpoints and finish a setup that actually feels complete.