So I really wanted to try skeleton necro 9was playing before pure spectres build) so In a6 at lvl 44 I decided to go for second lab to get the skelly node.
When I entered and I saw monster level 55 (was sure its lower level) I said to myself no way Im gonna do that at this level but atleast try. And I did it lol. Had some close calls but Izaro died very fast.
Minion builds are so strong, I really think about switching from GC mines (still gearing up) to this build for bosskilling. Looks safer.
Kinda tired of rebuilding my AG lvl21. I wish i could have my skeles taunt and NOT my AG. While still letting my ag cull maim and apply ele weakness. Can't even have it weaponless because it can still melee. and therefore taunt on hit. Would it be better to just take my taunt gem off all together? Or maybe run a taunt totem instead of an ag?
When looking for an elder helm how is it possible to determine if a prefix is open for a life roll, poe.trade seems unable to determine whether the stats are prefix or affix for most rolls on elder helms.
the 2 mods you're looking for are conc and minion dmg, both are prefixes
resists and dex/str/int etc are all suffixes (you can also craft aspect of the avian which is suffix)
Which means if a helm has both the above mentioned supports and no life/armor/evasion etc there's most likely a prefix open to craft life on.
Good example of this.
Also, having done 2 uber elder kills with this build with about the same budget as ghazzy included in his high budget setup, i can confidently say that this build can do uber elder on a fairly low budget compared to the high budget one.
my first kill had 2 deaths due to me overcomplicating things, 2nd run was deathless.
Next uber elder i do i'll try to record and upload.
/Noxy
Too late saw your post and as I see your character is naked, any chance to see the video or your gear used to kill uber?
First of all, thank you for your guide. It's the first time I'm trying the skeletons. I started with mage skeletons but after a while I switched to the melee ones. The clear speed is a little slower but the boss damage is higher. So far they are melting faces until T12 with all map mods. Today I tried Core (T13), it was ok but the skeletons die very fast. After that I tried Caldera (T13) dual boss and had no chance. My animated guardian and the skelettons die so fast that I have to constantly resummon them. At the moment I have no idea how to improve my gear. I have about ~7,7k life and maxed all res.
I'm thinking about crafting 1x ghastly eye with life, minion dmg if you cast... and minions blind on hit and 1x ghastly exe with life, minion dmg if you cast... and minions taunt on hit. Perhaps this helps to reduce the damage and gives us more defense.
What is the main point for using brightbeak, are there any alternatives like f.e. midnight bargain?
Is my gem setup ok or should I switch some gems? Which item(s) should I improve next?
Thank you guys!
Last edited by Isgaliath on Mar 25, 2018, 4:52:37 PM
Pardon the delayed responses, I've had my birthday + drivers license test + my grandfather dying any day keeping me off my original schedule to go through forum threads, so sorry. I'll try my best to catch up on the missed days!
I know you said to go for Victario's for solo play but I was wondering if using a Victario's on Animate Guardian is a decent idea to get charges going?
*edit* i think i figured out that that won't work because the AG wont' really be killing. :/
But are you still suggesting to go with Victario's for solo?
Hey,
It's alright but the radius isn't that big tbh. The Frenzy charges are on hit but still. I think that if you feel like the defensive is fine then use it as it increases your general clear speed.
what about using Midnight's Bargain for +1zomb / +1 spectre, and dropping a +1 skel node from the tree (or else we'll have 11 skel, which we don't want) ?
Thanks again mate.
Hey,
I would never use Midnight Bargain unless I'm going LL it hurts your eHP way to much.
i can assume maybe one of the gems would be a controlled destruction but what might the other be?
Also i came to the same conclusion to forgo my generosity setup for a CWDT setup, but i was thinking of running a curse on my charge setup so i could effectively use dying breath as my animate guardian to give my minions 18 percent more damage while also boosting any curse on close enemies to my animate guardian by 18 percent.
of course to do all this i need to run an unset to have clarity and move desecrate +increased duration+ Flesh offering to the 1h or shield so i can run the CWDT on a 4 link.
I wonder if anyone else has tinkered with all the animate guardian targets and has come up with a preferred one?
Started with this build, then decided I really wanted to take advantage of that 1000 strength bonus on The Baron. Only doing low level maps currently, but in PoB it looked like it would work out pretty well. The only down side is you don't really get to take advantage of the extra 2 skeletons during normal map clearing because of the added 1 second cooldown. But they're there for boss fights, and the nodes that give you extra skeletons also give you extra zombies. Could probably do with some tweaking.
I always say that people should see build guides, my own or others more as guidelines then tweak the build to their own personal preference if they prefer to play in a different way than is being showed in the build guide itself.
The guide shows what I would personally run with :)
The Mage Skelly version of this build is just a worse version of the Heirophant Frostbolt Totem build. Like significany worse version.
With 2 Exalt invested into this build, and being level 69 I'm finding T4-T6 maps extremely difficult. The same cannot be said for the same investment and same level of the Heirophant Frostbolt build. That build was clearning T6s and T7s easily at 65-70.
I feel that the mage skellies with TV spectres is more of a niche / nice build. However, try the melee version using Solar Guard spectres. It demolishes everything, bosses included.
Hey! I'm switching from mage to melee skeletons and so far it has been great, no major issues apart from my Bones of Ullr eating near 3 exalt worth of chromatics. I melt bosses down.
Couple of things that I must've missed from the updated high budget version:
1] How do you keep your animated guardian up? I'm following your setup and with a level 20 14% animated guardian, it still dies very quickly when it comes to bosses like the Phoenix, Hydra and the Minotaur, as well as shaper.
2] I play solo, is Necromancer Aegis a requirement? By removing it and freeing the 6 points, I was able to invest into more health nodes etc. and I'm now at 7.6k health, big boost from my previous petty 5,5-6k. I don't understand the difference with having it and not having it, I melt things down.
3] I played around with Solar Guards abit earlier when I was doing yellow maps for faster clear speed and figured I'd look into an elder helmet. Would something like this work? Or is there any other cool recommendations you have for a helmet swap when it comes to Solar Guards? I'm not sure if they benefit from the burning damage.
Last but not least, do you happen to have any twitch/youtube videos of you going solo vs Shaper with this build? I went there today (with Solar Guards as I completely forgot to change back to vanguards) and everything I had spawned or did spawn got absolutely destroyed (expect for the Solar Guards). By some miracle, I downed him with no portals left. My animated guardian did not last long nor my skeletons. I was very busy with running around the place dodging balls and finding it difficult to summon skeletons near Shaper that wouldn't suicide to the ground thingy all around.
Hey,
Awesome to hear bro!
Regarding your color issues with the bones: https://youtu.be/NE-DX_5uIe0 that'll teach you how to run the Vorici bench-trick to avoid wasting that much currency again on coloring!
1) Guardians can be rather rippy for him, Malformation map as well, to some degree Malachai in Core t15. Shaper is generally fine, Uber Atziri can be rip-risky for him as well. I have been unable to keep him up in Uber Elder as well. Keep in mind that you can "desummon" him by unequipping the gem. Simply recast him on the ground to resummon him but make sure you don't target any items when you resummon him!
2) Necro Aegis with Vics charity is a clear speed enhancer, I personally due to playing hardcore started to remove this to get more eHP and tankiness in general.
3) Burning damage doesn't benefit them enough to bother imo. Minion Damage, Elemental Damage (essence crafted) & Conc effect are optimal.
I ran Shaper last week with it, AG stayed alive but he's always in a risk of dying in there but should be fine. It's all about positioning and knowing the fight, place skellies behind Shaper so they don't die to the beam or balls. Pop the floating balls on the sides so they don't screw your skellies up as well.
Really love the build having a blast. Went melee Skeletons + Solar guards as per your suggestions. Just wanted to say thanks. My third build this league and using it for bossing and really having fun.
Edit: Only thing I seem to have trouble with is certain packs and bosses absolutely annihilate my Skeletons. I tried Bone Offering a bit but probably am doing something wrong.
Double Edit: Thanks for your update video I was scratching my head on you using Anger but now it makes sense. You rock.
Another question what is the best way to get avian? I am currently using Blapshemy / Temp Chains for mapping but that avian seems interesting.
Oh another thing someone else mentioned I didn't see here was to get an abyss jewel with minion chance to blind. With everything up it seems to keep blind up consistently on bosses.
Hey,
Glad you're enjoying it!
Some bosses have a lot of AoE damage screwing with your skellies, just make sure you summon them behind the boss and it's generally fine. I've been able to kill everything in the game with rather mediocre gear with this build using Melee Skellies with Solar Guards.
<3 Thank you :)
Avian is nice but not mandatory, I've been leaning towards using Purity of Ice but that's mainly for running Uber Elder >.<
Hi Ghazzy, ty so much for another great build,
i can kill all content, havnt tried uber elder yet, need the 15th fragment :-(
Any advice what i could upgrad next ?
- maybe try to get +1 socketed gems for boots and switch A.Guardian + zombie to boot slot ?
- i have to upgrade all auras to lvl 21 for another +1 max res and need empower lvl 4 xD
- i also lack a movement skill because i play LowLife and cant use shieldcharge
- should i respec commander of darkness to misstress of sacrifice ?
greetings
I'm not sure how LL with this build will feel vs Uber Elder tbh, it's a VERY messy fight >.<
I would probably keep to CoD over MoS personally.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I would prefer LL over life with this build in it's current state. We don't really need more damage, it's more about reliable eHP and defence.
This is my current build. I can say wasted some money rebuying jewels and belt to get dex and more res coz I switched to vis mortis. Love it so far doing up to T5. Trying to finish all my white maps before moving to yellow. Still need to buy the proper potions and all the socket gems. Aside from those what else can I upgrade here?
I know can get severed in sleep for weapon and that aspect thing on the necklace? Also I ended up picking up Lieoneye for hp coz it was cheap for a lot of hp.
Hi Ghazzy, ty so much for another great build,
i can kill all content, havnt tried uber elder yet, need the 15th fragment :-(
Any advice what i could upgrad next ?
- maybe try to get +1 socketed gems for boots and switch A.Guardian + zombie to boot slot ?
- i have to upgrade all auras to lvl 21 for another +1 max res and need empower lvl 4 xD
- i also lack a movement skill because i play LowLife and cant use shieldcharge
- should i respec commander of darkness to misstress of sacrifice ?
greetings
How is lowlife build? Do you find it hard to survive or its not a problem?
After running this build 3 times so far in HC I actually decided to stay with the Brightbeak for the sake of reliably dodging bosses, including Uber Elder.
tried to color before linking ended up with 5 off, is faster attacks way worse of an option than minion damage? I doubt i can get it to 4r2b without spending a ton.
Minion Damage is among the best support gems if not the best for them =/ Sorry!
Just got my 4th ascendancy and I'm gonna look into speccing into one of these builds. Unsure if I want to focus on going mage skellies with TV's or melee with solars. Been using your other Solar Guards guide and came here on your suggestion :)
What I'm a little confused on is the use of hatred vs anger and when each should be used. I'm running with a Nhamahu's Flame Cyclone Chieftain so I'd want to keep the anger buff if possible to buff them during boss fights, but if I melt the bosses myself should I even care?
Same idea applies to the Grip of the Council gloves - do we use it in both scenarios or only when we'd be using Hatred to double stack?
Also is there an argument for ball lightning vs orb of storms? The other guide uses BL so I'm unsure if its preference or if there's a reason.
Thanks again for all the hard work. You've helped make this league amazing on such little currency.
Hey,
Awesome to hear bro!
Anger is used when you use Mage Skellies (make sure it's on generosity to avoid screwing with your EE proccing)
Hatred for melee skellies which I strongly recommend.
Grip of the Council is only for melee skellies and is again, strongly recommended.
Ball Lightning vs Orb of Storms = Matter of taste, I've generally started to prefer OoS over BL.
Thank you bro <3, I'm sadly not a fulltime streamer (yet) but I do my best to keep up! :)
I got a Elder Helmet with lvl 20 Burning Damage, lvl 16 Minion Damage and a aspect of the spider aura.
Is their a reason to go for the other aspect buff? As far as I understand it, aspect of the sider will hinder and make enemies take 15% increased damage (so a 15% more multiplier). That should be about the same average damage as the recommended aspect buff. Or am I missing something??
Also getting a vis mortis with 2B4R will be hard. If I go for a 3B3R vis mortis, what gems would you recommend? I was thinking of phys to lightning, but then the maim support from AG wont be as effective, right?
Is droping the IC withing the Cwdt setup for a low level curse (elem weakness or enfeeble for example) worth it?
Hey,
Spider or Avian, both works great. Only real difference is that Spider requires you to be closer to the enemies where as the Avian doesn't force you to be close to anything to function.
4R Vis = use the 3R Vorici recipe.
If you go 3r3b then switch Ruthless for Added Chaos imo.
I prefer IC to avoid ripping to Porcupines exploding and Bone Husks.
For ppl who are talking about 4r 2b being hard and expensive, it's not as bad as it sounds. you need lvl 6 Vorici. it will cost you 120 chromes a craft. Craft 3red, it says average attempts using this is about 6. I got it in 2. When i was buying chromes it was about 130 for 10 chaos. If that's too expensive, run more maps and farm till you can.
Copied for the Vorici calculator:
Craft, Average cost, Chance, Average attempts, Cost per, Std. Deviation
Vorici 3R, 738.2, 16.25625%, 6.2, 120, 5.63
Poe.trade has about 150 chromes for 10 chaos which comes out about 50 chaos on average.
For ppl who are talking about 4r 2b being hard and expensive, it's not as bad as it sounds. you need lvl 6 Vorici. it will cost you 120 chromes a craft. Craft 3red, it says average attempts using this is about 6. I got it in 2. When i was buying chromes it was about 130 for 10 chaos. If that's too expensive, run more maps and farm till you can.
Copied for the Vorici calculator:
Craft, Average cost, Chance, Average attempts, Cost per, Std. Deviation
Vorici 3R, 738.2, 16.25625%, 6.2, 120, 5.63
Poe.trade has about 150 chromes for 10 chaos which comes out about 50 chaos on average.
About getting the 3 red + 1 green socket on Ullr... Is it mainly to buff our animate guardian with fortify? Or when you switch out fortify for maim support on bosses?
Atm im running with a 5L chest, 3 red, 2 blue... And using Maim, splash and melee phys + minion dmg and skellys... switching splash for multistrike on bosses... Is there a better way? does multistrike outperform maim on trash clearing?
And "when" i finally get 6L... should i still switch splash for ruthless on bosses? going maim+ruthless+melee phys and multistrike on bosses?
Thanks!
/Donvigo
Hey,
Well yeah, it's to include him to our Shield Charge setup.
Maim only works after it's hit the first time which is why I don't use it in my skelly setup :)
I actually stopped switching gems and I keep splash in for bosses as well as most bosses has adds and the skellies does such an absurd ammount of damage as it is.
When looking for an elder helm how is it possible to determine if a prefix is open for a life roll, poe.trade seems unable to determine whether the stats are prefix or affix for most rolls on elder helms.
the 2 mods you're looking for are conc and minion dmg, both are prefixes
resists and dex/str/int etc are all suffixes (you can also craft aspect of the avian which is suffix)
Which means if a helm has both the above mentioned supports and no life/armor/evasion etc there's most likely a prefix open to craft life on.
Good example of this.
Also, having done 2 uber elder kills with this build with about the same budget as ghazzy included in his high budget setup, i can confidently say that this build can do uber elder on a fairly low budget compared to the high budget one.
my first kill had 2 deaths due to me overcomplicating things, 2nd run was deathless.
Next uber elder i do i'll try to record and upload.
Is this an overall better build than the spectre build? Or should I go for purely a spectre build if I want something really powerful with minimal investment?
For the most part this build ends with a 6l Spectre (Elder helm with Minion Damage + Burning [Tukohama] or Conc [Solar Guards]) and a 6l Skeleton piece. For minimal investment, I found this build to be about equalish? But much more adaptable. And easier to change based on the content you want to do, rather than being a pure boss killer.
^^^
It's also slightly more "advanced" over the pure spectre build. For newer players it might be easier to start with spectres then opt over to this. If you feel confident in what the guide is displaying then go for this build, it's truly insane :)
Is Lv 4 empower still recommended for this build? I have the currency to buy it and if so what gem do I swap it out for?
Thanks.
I've stopped switching gems so I keep splash for bosses cause they deal so much dmg. Empower lvl 4 only adds like 6k+ DPS per skelly over Added Fire, it's better, but imo, not worth the investment.
I'm starting to look towards end-game gearing, specifically gem upgrades, and I had a few questions...
1. What order would you prioritize gems upgrades?
2. After reviewing Summon Skeleton stats on the wiki, I'm a little confused as to the actual benefit of increased gem level. I assume it's an increased level of Skeletal Warrior / Mage, but how do I determine the level of Skeleton summoned by a specific level gem? Because of this confusion, I'm not sure whether a 20% lvl 21 SS gem is a better long-term goal than a 23% lvl 20 SS gem. Can you offer any insights?
1) Skelly hitting 21/20 after that, any support gems to it.
2) Basically higher lvl skellies have higher life, higher accuracy which doesn't matter thanks to Bone Sculptor, but also higher baseline dmg which significantly increases their dmg output.
So i'm currently lvl 84 - I love the build and i'm currently following the melee skelly high-budget setup. I find myself wondering if it wouldn't be best to switch to mage skelly for about 10 lvls to make it go by faster? I'm not incredibly focused on bosses atm and I'm looking to map with this character at the moment. Would you guys suggest switching to a mage skelly/TV spectre setup for mapping? I'm currently running the 4 solar guards and melee skellies. I'd love to hear everyone's input on this.
Hey,
Melee are the to-go choice for super boss kill speed.
Spectres are the first ascendancy node you should rush and the Solar Guards will speed you through maps insanely fast. Using mages on top of it is really not needed.
I play HC only so i made a hybrid of this build goin very defensive * u can check my char name is inmortaliz)
basically goin 2 spectres on a semi 6 link glove and 6 link skelies
My question is whats better mage skellies with 2 tukohama vanguards or 2 solar guards with melee skelletons? which is better mob killer and map clearer?
Ty
Hey,
The faster casting pseudo support is kind of wasted tbh, the slower proj is "good" but slows clear speed a bit imo.
Melee skellies with solar guards are top tier for this build.
Basically:
Mage skellies are slightly worse than SG for clearing
Melee Skellies are a bit better than TV spectres for bossing
So we use the melee with SGs for optimal approach but you can absolutely run mage skellies with TVs if you wish :)
Gotta hand it to you Ghazzy, your build (especially the high budget version) is fantastic. Haven't played a Necro build in like 4 leagues.
Got bored of playing a few builds this league. After farming up some currency I created a a witch and am now level 75/76. Completely obliterating everything. My skellies are pushing 1.4m DPS with melee splash and a Brightbeak equipped (around 1.8m with added fire and a Severed in Sleep).
Thanks for the build!
Hey,
Well, thank you :) I'm not a fulltime streamer (yet) but I do my best to keep up!
So I really wanted to try skeleton necro 9was playing before pure spectres build) so In a6 at lvl 44 I decided to go for second lab to get the skelly node.
When I entered and I saw monster level 55 (was sure its lower level) I said to myself no way Im gonna do that at this level but atleast try. And I did it lol. Had some close calls but Izaro died very fast.
Minion builds are so strong, I really think about switching from GC mines (still gearing up) to this build for bosskilling. Looks safer.
Glad to hear you're enjoying it! :)
Though, I must say that I would prefer to run Soul Weaver as my cruel lab to help skyrocket clear speed as you're lvling and then pick up skellies at Merc lab instead. But it's a matter of taste ^^
Kinda tired of rebuilding my AG lvl21. I wish i could have my skeles taunt and NOT my AG. While still letting my ag cull maim and apply ele weakness. Can't even have it weaponless because it can still melee. and therefore taunt on hit. Would it be better to just take my taunt gem off all together? Or maybe run a taunt totem instead of an ag?
I haven't found any specific need for taunt, blind on the other hand... oh boi!
First of all, thank you for your guide. It's the first time I'm trying the skeletons. I started with mage skeletons but after a while I switched to the melee ones. The clear speed is a little slower but the boss damage is higher. So far they are melting faces until T12 with all map mods. Today I tried Core (T13), it was ok but the skeletons die very fast. After that I tried Caldera (T13) dual boss and had no chance. My animated guardian and the skelettons die so fast that I have to constantly resummon them. At the moment I have no idea how to improve my gear. I have about ~7,7k life and maxed all res.
I'm thinking about crafting 1x ghastly eye with life, minion dmg if you cast... and minions blind on hit and 1x ghastly exe with life, minion dmg if you cast... and minions taunt on hit. Perhaps this helps to reduce the damage and gives us more defense.
What is the main point for using brightbeak, are there any alternatives like f.e. midnight bargain?
Is my gem setup ok or should I switch some gems? Which item(s) should I improve next?
Thank you guys!
Hey,
My pleasure bro, I try my best to keep up!
Skellies will die vs AoE heavy boss fights, just make sure you summon them behind the bosses to avoid them dying too fast. They deal so much DPS that putting 5 behind a boss is usually enough to kill them within the next couple of seconds.
Animate Guardian must be lvl 18/19+ to stand a chance at surviving harder rolled maps, some of the end-game and end-map bosses can be very rip risky for him though, so be careful. Specifically vs Core Malachai/t16 maps, Malformation (piety 2.0)
Blind on hit jewels are crazy good for this build ^^
Severed in Sleep is another option for the sake of damage but Brightbeak is top tier for dodging things tbh.
Vaal the skelly gem once it hits 20/20 and hope it hits 21/20 and you'll notice an even faster boss kill speed ;)
hey ghazzy, i tried your build and loved it. while leveling i realised something though: in your POB for the low budget mage skeletons neither of the dead reckoning jewels is connected to 40 int, rendering them useless. i dont know how to build further =(
Hey Ghazzy, I'm playing your build since a few days and loving it !
Can you (or someone else) have a quick look at my gear and tree and maybe guide me to the things I should upgrade/change (have ~5ex of money) ? Kinda struggling on T13 maps (maybe I'm just bad).
Thank you !
Last edited by Caedes_ on Mar 26, 2018, 3:01:14 PM
hey ghazzy, i tried your build and loved it. while leveling i realised something though: in your POB for the low budget mage skeletons neither of the dead reckoning jewels is connected to 40 int, rendering them useless. i dont know how to build further =(
Stats for threshold jewels don't have to actually be allocated, they just have to be in radius :)
Thanks for taking the time to respond Ghazzy. You rock! Yeah I have blind on one abyss jewel and I think it really helps. Your support of this thread is really awesome and appreciated.
